NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - Didi Global, the Chinese

ride-hailing company, must face a lawsuit in a U.S. court

claiming it defrauded investors by concealing and disobeying a

Chinese government order to postpone its 2021 initial public

offering until it resolved cybersecurity and privacy concerns.

In a 54-page decision on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lewis

Kaplan in Manhattan federal court said investors who brought the

proposed class action sufficiently pleaded that Didi and various

officials intended to defraud them in raising more than $4.4

billion in the June 30, 2021 IPO.

The offering valued all of Didi at about $67.5 billion.

Kaplan said the alleged desire to sell American depositary

shares before a looming government crackdown on Chinese

technology companies gave Didi and the officials a "concrete and

personal economic motive" to go public before "the window for

high valuation Chinese IPOs in the United States" closed.

Lawyers for Didi did not immediately respond to requests for

comment. The investors' lawyers did not immediately respond to

similar requests.

Kaplan also refused to dismiss claims against banks that

helped Didi go public.

Shares of Didi tumbled in July 2021 as China's cyberspace

regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, banned it

from registering new customers and required the removal of the

Didi Travel app from smartphone app stores.

Didi announced plans in December 2021 to delist the

U.S.-listed shares. The regulator fined Didi $1.2 billion the

following July over the episode.

Didi's market value is now about $19 billion, according to

LSEG data.

The case is In re Didi Global Inc Securities Litigation,

U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.

21-05807.