By Sherry Qin
SenseTime Group’s shares fell sharply on news of the death of its founder and controlling shareholder.
Shares of the artificial intelligence software company dropped 11% to 1.11 Hong Kong dollars (14 U.S. cents) early Monday, on track for its largest daily drop since early July and taking their year-to-date loss to 49%.
Tang Xiao’ou, the company’s controlling shareholder, passed away on Dec. 15 due to health issues, the company said in an exchange filing on Sunday. The obituary posted on the company website didn’t specify his age or the type of illness.
“The passing of Prof. Tang is not expected to have a material adverse impact on the daily management and the ordinary business activities of the Company,” SenseTime said in another exchange filing on Monday, before the market opened.
The news came weeks after U.S. short seller Grizzly Research accused the Hong Kong-based company of inflating its revenue. In response to the allegation, SenseTime said the report “contains unfounded allegations, misleading conclusions and interpretations,” according to an exchange filing.
SenseTime, which is partially state-owned, develops technologies, including facial recognition, image recognition, autonomous driving, with the use of artificial intelligence.
At the time of his death, Tang had a net worth of $1.1 billion, according to Forbes.
Write to Sherry Qin at [email protected]
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