Kuaishou Reacts to Initiate Legal Proceedings in Case Involving Fabricated Research Report

News released by We Media sparked a market shock on Monday. Kuaishou shares in Hong Kong slumped heavily due to the rumor, at one point falling below the issue price of HK$115 in late trading.

Reportedly, brokerage firm Morgan Stanley has recently lowered the target price of Kuaishou from HK $300 per share to HK $50 per share.

Due to these rumors, the share price of Kuaishou dropped below the issue price of HK$115 on July 26 in Hong Kong. At the closing, Kuaishou shares fell 11.97% to HK$114, with a total market value of HK$474.3 billion. Kuaishou total market value lost HK$64.5 billion in one day compared with the closing price on Friday.

An analyst from a Hong Kong brokerage firm said he had not seen the document and that such news was a false report of Morgan Stanley’s latest research. Morgan Stanley published the piece on Kuaishou on the 23rd. Citing QM data, they estimated a decline in the platform’s daily active users in the second quarter of this year, deferred Kuaishou’s earnings estimates to 2025, and therefore, lowered Kuaishou’s price target to HK$120.

On the evening of July 26th, Kuaishou responded that it would initiate legal proceedings against malicious fabrication of research reports that interfere with the market.

On February 5 this year, Kuaishou was listed in Hong Kong. Kuaishou, known as “the first short video stock in China”, reached HK $417.8 per share only six days after its listing, and its total market value once exceeded HK $1.73 trillion, surpassing JD.COM, Xiaomi and Baidu, and ranking fifth only after Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan and Pinduoduo.

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Kuaishou went through 11 rounds of financing before listing. According to its prospectus, the top five shareholders are Tencent Investment, 5Y Capital, ReachBest, KeYong and DCM, with shareholding ratios of 21.567%, 16.667%, 12.648%, 10.023% and 9.23%, respectively. In addition, Baidu Investment, Sequoia China, Boyu Capital, CMC Capital, Temasek, Shunwei Capital and other well-known institutions all hold the platform’s shares.