During a sensitive period marked by abnormal stock price fluctuations and anticipated half-year losses, Dalian Friendship(Group)Co.,Ltd. (000679.SZ, stock price 9.82 yuan, market value 3.5 billion yuan) faces renewed corporate governance concerns.
On the evening of August 20, Dalian Friendship announced that its controlling shareholder, Wuxin Investment Holdings (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Wuxin Holdings"), received a warning letter from the China Securities Regulatory Commission Dalian Bureau (hereinafter referred to as "Dalian CSRC Bureau") for information disclosure violations.
The incident stems from Wuxin Holdings signing a Strategic Cooperation Agreement on July 22, 2025, concerning the company's future development, but failing to promptly notify the listed company to fulfill information disclosure obligations. This significant matter was not disclosed to the market until August 15, resulting in a 24-day delay.
According to the announcement issued by Dalian Friendship, the company received the "Decision on Issuing a Warning Letter to Wuxin Investment Holdings (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd." from the Dalian CSRC Bureau on August 20.
The warning letter directly addressed Wuxin Holdings' information disclosure violations as the controlling shareholder of Dalian Friendship. The investigation revealed that the core violation involved a Strategic Cooperation Agreement signed on July 22, 2025.
The agreement was jointly signed by four parties: Wuxin Holdings, Wuhan Credit Investment Group Co., Ltd., Wuhan Kaisheng Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd., and Dalian Friendship Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Friendship Group"), the original controlling shareholder of Dalian Friendship.
However, this agreement, which could have significant impact on the listed company, was not promptly disclosed by Wuxin Holdings to Dalian Friendship. It wasn't until nearly a month later, on August 15, that Dalian Friendship issued a major event announcement revealing the agreement's details.
According to the announcement, the Strategic Cooperation Agreement primarily involves terminating the old Cooperation Agreement from 2016 and clarifying that all parties will allocate advantageous resources to support Dalian Friendship in improving operational effectiveness. It even supports the original controlling shareholder Friendship Group in conducting diversified deep-level cooperation with the listed company at both equity and business levels, including increasing shareholdings and retail business cooperation.
The Dalian CSRC Bureau determined that Wuxin Holdings failed to promptly inform the listed company about signing the important agreement to fulfill information disclosure obligations, violating relevant provisions of the "Administrative Measures for Information Disclosure of Listed Companies." Consequently, it decided to issue a warning letter as an administrative regulatory measure against Wuxin Holdings and record the violation in the capital market integrity database.
Regarding the regulatory warning letter received by its controlling shareholder, Dalian Friendship stated in its announcement that this administrative regulatory measure targets the controlling shareholder and will not affect the company's normal business operations. The company will urge the controlling shareholder to enhance regulatory awareness and strictly comply with relevant regulations.
However, this incident may not easily alleviate market concerns.
Shortly before this information disclosure violation was exposed, Dalian Friendship's stock price experienced severe volatility. According to the company's August 5 announcement, the stock's closing prices fell cumulatively by more than 20% over three consecutive trading days on August 1, 4, and 5, constituting abnormal stock trading activity.
Notably, Dalian Friendship faces operational fundamental pressures. The company's previously released 2025 interim performance forecast shows that net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company is expected to lose 30-38 million yuan in the first half, expanding from the 26.4079 million yuan loss in the same period last year.
Dalian Friendship attributed the losses to three factors: first, land value-added tax settlement and late payment penalties by its real estate subsidiary; second, declining sales revenue and gross profit margins at physical department stores due to regional competition; and third, increased financial expenses due to higher external interest-bearing debt.
Comments