(Yicai Global) Sept. 15 -- Fosun is preparing to take US media giant Bloomberg to court for publishing a report that the Chinese health-to-smart-manufacturing conglomerate says seriously deviated from the facts, misled investors and caused the firm substantial losses as its share price crashed.

Chinese regulators have asked the country’s largest lenders to “check their exposure to Fosun debt and understand potential liquidity risks,” Bloomberg reported on Sept. 13, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report badly affected Fosun’s stock price. The share price of Fosun’s listed arm, Fosun International [HKG:0656], slumped 4.1 percent on Sept. 13 to HKD4.90 (USD0.62) apiece and tumbled a further 6.9 percent yesterday to hit a nine-year low. Today, after the rebuttal, it surged back 8.5 percent to trade at HKD4.95 as of 3.30 p.m. China time.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission is not telling banks to check their debt exposure to Fosun and lenders that collaborate with the Shanghai-based company have not received any such notice, Fosun said yesterday, adding that the group has made this verification through multiple channels.

Bloomberg’s report deviated from the facts, severely misled investors, triggering abnormal fluctuations in the market which have greatly impacted Fosun’s normal business operations, harmed its reputation and cost the group and its investors huge losses, Fosun said in another statement today.

Fosun International ranks No.589 on the 2022 Forbes Global 2000 List, with a MSCI ESG rating of AA, according to the conglomerate’s website.

However, the cash-strapped firm has been paring its stake in a number of units since the beginning of the year to improve liquidity.

Fosun Internationals had liabilities of CNY375.4 billion (USD53.8 billion) as of June 30 and assets of CNY849.7 billion (USD121.9 billion), including about CNY378.8 billion in liquid assets. Its asset-liability ratio is around 76.6 percent, according to its latest earnings report released on Aug. 30.

The conglomerate’s net profit narrowed 33.6 percent in the first half from the same period last year to CNY2.7 billion (USD387.1 million), the report said. Revenue climbed 17.7 percent to CNY82.9 billion (USD11.9 billion).

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor