Investor Relations

1. Luckin Coffee asked to reverse boardroom changes after co-founder’s ouster, as China prepares to wield big stick for accounting fraud

   Luckin Coffee, the coffee chain dubbed as China’s Starbucks, has been asked by some shareholders to reverse some of its boardroom changes in July following the ouster of its co-founder and chairman, as Chinese regulators prepare to clamp down on accounting fraud.Hong Kong-based Centurium Capital is seeking to reinstate Sean Shao as a director and remove Jie Yang and Ying Zhen as independent directors, the company said in US exchange filings on Monday. It has called for an extraordinary general…

2. Hong Kong power utility CLP returns to profitability in the first half but warns of uncertain outlook due to Covid-19

   CLP Holdings, the larger of Hong Kong’s two power utilities, posted a net profit of HK$6.01 billion (US$775.4 million) for the first half, but the company said the outlook remains uncertain as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on the markets in which its operates.“The second half of 2020 is likely to remain highly uncertain for the world, for Hong Kong and for CLP,” said chairman Michael Kadoorie.Restrictions on business and social activity in the first quarter dampened demand for…

3. Hong Kong distressed developer loses US$58 million in 12 days in U-turn on Kai Tak land deal amid scramble with hostile creditors

   Cash-strapped Hong Kong developer Goldin Financial Holdings said it had found a new buyer for its waterfront residential plot in Kai Tak, less than two weeks after agreeing to sell the property to an offshore buyer. The change of mind comes with an immediate loss of HK$450 million (US$58 million).Chen Zhuang Rong, a mainland businessman, is the new buyer of the site, Goldin said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late on Thursday evening. According to Tianyancha, a Chinese company…

4. Fosun, owner of Club Med, warns investors of 76 per cent slide in earnings as coronavirus ravages tourism business

   Fosun International, the owner of Club Med resort chain, has told investors to expect up to a 76 percent slide in earnings for the first six months this year as the coronavirus pandemic crushed its tourism-related business.The group is expected to generate 1.8 billion to 2 billion yuan (US$285 million) of earnings in the first half, compared with 7.61 billion yuan in the same period in 2019, it said in an exchange filing later Friday. The profit warning was based on a preliminary assessment of…

5. Is Hong Kong’s ‘Superman’ the mystery buyer of cash-strapped Goldin’s Kai Tak waterfront residential site?

   Goldin Financial Holdings plans to sell its waterfront residential site in Kai Tak to a mystery buyer at a deep discount in exchange for cash and loan, in what is the first major debt restructuring to unfold from the city’s property market slump.The distressed developer agreed to sell the former airport runway site known as Area 4B Site 4 in Kowloon to Sino Shield, a private company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, according to an exchange filing on Friday. Goldin will receive HK$2.5…

6. Lufax, P2P fintech backed by China’s biggest insurer, said to aim for IPO in the US this year

   Lufax Holding, which runs an online wealth management and peer-to-peer lending platform, is planning an initial public offering in the US this year, according to a person familiar with the matter, amid heightened scrutiny on US-listed Chinese companies in recent months.The company is pursuing its long-held ambitions to list in the US as many of its investors and creditors are based in New York, the person said, declining to be named becaused the information is private. Lufax will follow in the…

7. Explainer: What you need to know about the latest Chinese firms blacklisted by the US over treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang

   The latest batch of 11 Chinese companies blacklisted in the US over claimed human rights violations in the treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang includes a cooperative partner of Google, a clothing maker recently dumped by US retail giant Costco, and a touch-screen provider that is a subsidiary of an Apple supplier.“Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labour and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said…

8. Why Jack Ma’s Ant Group chose a dual IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai and not New York

   As financial technology giant Ant Group gears up for one of the largest initial public offerings of all time, New York’s stock exchange is being left out in the cold.The decision is a rare occasion where a marquee Chinese company has bypassed the world’s largest financial market entirely. Even Tencent Holding, its closest domestic competitor, conducted investor roadshows in the US before plumbing for a Hong Kong listing in 2004.Ant’s choice of Shanghai and Hong Kong illustrates a shift in the…

9. Which Hong Kong stocks have skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic? Hint: one makes toilet paper

   People may be staying away from hotels, airlines and luxury toys during Covid-19, but they’re still buying toilet paper – lots of it – explaining why Vinda International Holdings is one of the lucky few Hong Kong-listed companies reporting surging profits.Others besides Vinda that have recently issued so-called “profit alerts” include makers of respiratory devices and cleaning products as well as a game developer. Unlike the endless stream of companies warning of expected profit losses usually…

10. Luckin Coffee appoints liquidators, financial advisers to restructure and salvage business after accounting scandal

    Luckin Coffee has called in liquidators to oversee a corporate restructuring and negotiate with creditors to salvage its business, less than four months after shocking the market with a US$300 million accounting fraud.The start-up company named Alexander Lawson of Alvarez & Marsal Cayman Islands and Tiffany Wong Wing Sze of Alvarez & Marsal Asia to act as “light-touch” joint provisional liquidators (JPLs) under a Cayman Islands court order, it said in a regulatory filing in New York. The move…