On September 21, 2020, the investment analyst Bonitas Research issued a report on the Company which alleged that Huazhu Group “lied about the ownership of its hotel portfolio to produce fake financials.” The report also stated that Bonitas’ “fieldwork” “confirmed that Huazhu secretly supported operating costs of franchisee hotels owned by undisclosed current Huazhu employees & other undisclosed related parties (‘off-book hotels’).” Bonitas further asserted that it “believe[s] that Huazhu concealed operating expenses using undisclosed related party transactions to artificially inflate Huazhu’s reported profits[,]” and that it “calculate[s] that Huazhu’s fake profits manifested as RMB 2 billion (US$ 300 million) of fake PP&E on its CYE’19 balance sheet.”
On this news, Huazhu Group’s American depositary share (“ADS”) price fell sharply during intraday trading on September 21, 2020.
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