HONG KONG, Aug 15 Reuters The move to delist five Chinese stateowned enterprises SOEs from the New York Stock Exchange NYSE signals Beijing may be willing to compromise in order to strike an audit deal with the United States and end a more than decadeold dispute, analysts and advisers said on Monday.

The five SOEs including oil major Sinopec and China Life Insurance, whose audits have been under scrutiny by the U.S. securities regulator, said on Friday they would voluntarily delist from the NYSE.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission SEC had in May flagged the five and many other companies as failing to meet U.S. auditing standards, and the delisting signals China could compromise on allowing U.S. auditors to access the accounts of private Chinese companies listed in the United States, some analysts said.

Beijing and Washington have been in talks to end a dispute that had threatened to kick out hundreds of Chinese firms from their New York listings if China did not comply with Washington39;s demand for complete access to the books of U.S.listed Chinese companies.

Having the stateowned companies not listed in the U.S. allows the Chinese side to compromise in the negotiations, said one Hong Kong capital markets lawyer, declining to be named due to sensitivity of the matter.

They were more worried about having the SOEs39; accounts accessed, said the lawyer, referring to authorities in Beijing. A lot of the private companies are not thought to have data as…