Anta Denies Allegations in Muddy Waters Short Report
Xu Wei
DATE:  Jul 09 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai
Anta Denies Allegations in Muddy Waters Short Report Anta Denies Allegations in Muddy Waters Short Report

(Yicai Global) July 9 -- Anta Sports Products has refuted Muddy Waters Research's accusations that the Chinese athletics label manipulated its distributors to boost inflate revenue, and has resumed share trading after a brief suspension yesterday.

Some 25 of the dealers mentioned in Muddy Waters' report are independent of any Anta affiliates or third parties, the Xiamen-based firm said in a statement today. These distributors have their own management teams and run separately from Anta, which has no control over their financial or human resourcing decisions, it added.

The private investment firm claimed the day before that Anta secretly controlled 27 of its dealers, with 25 of them being immediate subsidiaries of the brand -- which claims its primary distributors are independent third parties. Top executives at Anta even call the dealers "subsidiaries," the report added.

Shares in Anta [HKG:2020] were down nearly 1.1 percent at HKD50.65 (USD6.48) at the lunch break after opening at HKD49.15.

Distributors often refer to themselves as subsidiaries or branch companies, Anta added, saying this is merely convenient for business but does not legally define them as Anta units.

Editor: James Boynton

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Keywords:   Anta Sports,Muddy Waters Research