SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Shares in Chinese language cybersecurity firm 360 Safety Expertise plunged on Thursday after the agency introduced that its billionaire founder Zhou Hongyi and his spouse have been divorcing and that he would give her a 6.25% share.
Shares in 360 Safety, China’s largest supplier of cybersecurity merchandise, fell by as a lot as 7.8%, its largest sooner or later fall since February.
The corporate on Tuesday issued an announcement saying Zhou would give a 6.25% share to Hu Huan, which was value about 9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) based mostly on 360 Safety’s closing value that day.
Thursday marked the primary buying and selling after the announcement, as markets have been shut on Wednesday for a public vacation.
Previous to the divorce, Hu had no shares within the firm. The wedding ended on pleasant phrases, and their separation won’t have an effect on the corporate’s operations, the corporate stated.
Zhou based 360 Safety Expertise in 2005. The corporate was listed on the New York Inventory Alternate in 2011 and returned to Chinese language inventory markets in 2018 by a again door itemizing.
He’ll stay as the corporate’s controlling shareholder after the switch, with a 5.24% stake below his title, and a 46.14% stake by Tianjin Qixin Zhicheng Expertise Co. Ltd., whose largest shareholder is Zhou.
360 Safety’s share value has almost tripled up to now this yr. The corporate has stated it’s engaged on synthetic intelligence applied sciences, latching on to a buzz created by hit U.S. chatbot ChatGPT.
($1 = 6.8804 Chinese language yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Enhancing by Sonali Paul)
