Shares of Hong Kong-listed Landing International Development Ltd. sold off Tuesday, closing 29% lower than the previous close on Friday.
In a filing, Landing Executive Director Zhou Xueyun said that apart from its August announcement of being unable to reach Chairman Yang Zhihui, “the Board is not aware of any reasons for these price and volume movements or of any information which must be announced to avoid a false market in the Company’s securities or of any inside information that needs to be disclosed.”
Zhou also noted that Yang was still “unable to be contacted or reached as at the date of this announcement.”
The price of Landing shares fell from HKD2.52 ($0.32) at the close of Friday, to HKD1.8 ($0.23) last Tuesday, trading volume increasing from 1.1 million shares to 9.9 million.
It was the largest selloff since the time Yang was reported missing, where the share price fell from HKD5.79 ($0.74) on August 22 to HKD3.76 ($0.48) the next day. Volume had increased from about 1.5 million shares to 20.7 million the next day, and 63.2 million the day after.
Although Yang, who holds a 50.48% stake in the company, has not communicated with the Board officially, it was reported that he had been detained in Cambodia.
Last August was also when the Philippine Department of Justice, upon orders from President Rodrigo Duterte, launched an investigation into Landing’s lease contract with state corporation Nayong Pilipino Foundation, which the country’s Commission on Audit had said was disadvantageous to the Philippine government. The Justice department later recommended the termination of the deal.
Landing reported profit of HKD280.57 million ($35.8 million) and revenue of HKD1.75 billion ($223.2 million) for the first half of the year, owing to a strong showing from its Jeju Shinhwa World in South Korea. Last September, the Jeju Casino Regulatory Division said they would be monitoring the performance of Landing’s Jeju Island resort, due to Yang’s still unexplained disappearance, but that no “special actions” were planned yet.
