A counter selling Relx e-cigarettes on Wangfujing Street in Beijing, China.
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Shares in publicly traded Chinese e-cigarette maker RLX Technology plunged by more than 40% on Monday as of 1 pm Eastern time, after two of the country’s regulators announced new draft rules that would classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products, a move that would increase scrutiny on the lightly regulated industry. The share drop caused the net worth of RLX’s founder, 39-year-old Kate Wang, to fall to $3.4 billion from $6 billion. RLX, which went public in January, trades on the New York Stock Exchange.
The draft regulations, reportedly published online by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, could deal a blow to the fast-growing industry if they are fully implemented. E-cigarette makers such as Wang’s RLX and Smoore International, led by fellow billionaire Chen Zhiping, have…
