While the criminal case for sexual harassment against JD.com CEO Richard Liu is still unclear, to say the least, its shareholders are getting nervous, says financial analyst Shaun Rein, and author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order to the Nikkei Asian Review. “Worries will grow over time if the stock continues to slide.”
Nikkei Asian Review:
That doesn’t mean JD.com’s shareholders are sitting quietly. While Walmart declined to comment on whether it has queried the company about the allegations against Liu and Google did not respond, institutional investors are worried.
“Shareholders are hugely concerned,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai, who said he had recently spoken with about 20 funds which have invested in JD.com or Tencent. “The uncertainty is bad for stock prices and bad for partnerships. Worries will grow over time if the stock continues to slide.”
Funds are likely to query the company about the criminal case, said Jamie Allen, secretary-general of the Asian Corporate Governance Association. “They won’t refrain from talking to JD about it,” he said. “They would have some opportunities to raise it.”
More in the Nikkei Asian Review.
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