Kuke Music Holding Limited (KUKE)

Kuke Music Holding Limited is a Beijing-based company that focuses on classical music in China. Founded in 2002, it built its business around licensing and distributing classical music content and providing related digital services to institutions and other customers. The company operated through subsidiaries in China and reported results through two principal segments.

The first segment covered subscription, licensing and smart music learning. It supplied classical music recordings and related content on a subscription basis to universities, music conservatories and public libraries, and it licensed content to online entertainment platforms, digital music services, film and television producers, airlines and smart hardware makers. As of December 31, 2021, the company reported 802 institutional subscribers, including 477 universities and conservatories and 325 public libraries.

The second segment covered music events and performances, in which Kuke organized concerts and festivals and sold musical instruments. These activities were meant to promote classical music to the public and to complement the licensing and education businesses with live and retail revenue.

Kuke completed its U.S. initial public offering around January 2021, listing American Depositary Shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KUKE, each representing a number of Class A ordinary shares. Trade press at the time reported that the offering raised about $50 million. Over the following years, the ADS price fell substantially, and the company also reported leadership changes. Like other small China-based issuers listed in the United States, it also faced the ordinary regulatory and disclosure obligations that apply to foreign private issuers, including annual reports on Form 20-F.

On October 21, 2025, the NYSE announced that NYSE Regulation had determined to begin proceedings to delist the company's ADSs. The exchange relied on Section 802.01C of the NYSE Listed Company Manual, stating that Kuke had not maintained an average closing price of at least $1.00 over 30 consecutive trading days and that it had changed its ADS ratio, which is treated as equivalent to a reverse stock split, within the prior year. Trading in the ADSs was suspended immediately.

The exchange noted that the company could request a review of the determination by a committee of the NYSE board, and that the NYSE would apply to the Securities and Exchange Commission to remove the ADSs from listing once all procedures, including any appeal, were complete. A Form 25 was subsequently filed with the SEC in early November 2025. The delisting was therefore a result of exchange noncompliance, not an acquisition or bankruptcy, and no successor company or acquirer was involved. The company's ordinary shares were not themselves listed on a U.S. exchange.