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Short-seller Muddy Waters takes aim at Chinese firm KE Holdings -Breaking

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© Reuters.

(Reuters) – U.S. short selling firm Muddy Waters announced Thursday that it acquired a short position at KE Holdings Inc., China’s largest housing broker, pushing shares as low as 10.9% before market.

The seller was skeptical about the firm’s transactions volumes, store counts and agents, as well the reported revenue.

Muddy Waters stated in a research paper that KE Holdings had overstated its value and listed ghost shops as ‘active’.

“Similar” to Luckin Coffee (OTC) This is a real company with substantial amounts of fraud,” Muddy Waters said, while comparing it to Starbucks (NASDAQ), which falsely inflated its share price through falsifying revenues.

According to Muddy Waters, the company inflated its new home sales GTV (Gross Transaction Value) by over 126% and its commission revenues by about 77%–96%, while operating far fewer brokerages than its platform count shows.

Reuters asked KE to comment but the company did not reply immediately.

Reuters earlier reported that KE Holdings had planned a Hong Kong stock exchange listing. They also hired Goldman Sachs, NYSE: to manage a float. The company denied the report, stating that they did not have an imminent plan.

The U.S. listed shares fell 10% in premarket trade after the report by the short seller, but the losses were recouped and the stock traded up 3.2% during early deals.

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