(Reuters) – Chinese social networking platform JOYY Inc said on Thursday that a report by short seller Muddy Waters contained numerous errors and that it was open to cash verification conducted by competent third-party advisers.
JOYY also said it will continue with its $300 million share repurchase program to demonstrate confidence in its long-term prospects.
Muddy Waters on Wednesday called JOYY a “multibillion-dollar fraud” and decided to bet against its stock, just days after Chinese search engine giant Baidu Inc struck a deal to buy JOYY’s domestic streaming platform.
“We conclude that YY’s component businesses are a fraction of the size it reports, and that the company’s reported user metrics, revenues, and cash balances are predominantly fraudulent,” Muddy Waters had said in a report on its website. [https://bit.ly/3lErXvU https://bit.ly/3lErXvU]]
U.S listed shares of JOYY were up 14.4% at $84.24 in early trading on Thursday.
(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
