(Yicai Global) Feb. 13 -- Koolearn Technology Holding’s shares sank by as much as 22 percent after two senior executives sold shares in the Chinese online education and e-commerce live-streaming company.

Koolearn [HKG: 1797] closed down 15 percent at HKD51.75 (USD6.59) a share today.

Yin Qiang, executive director and chief financial officer at Koolearn Technology, sold 1 million shares for HKD61.6 million (USD7.8 million) on Feb. 9, paring his stake in the Beijing-based firm to 0.4 percent, while Chief Executive Sun Dongxu sold 3.86 million on Feb. 7 and 8, making HKD217 million (USD27.6 million) and cutting his equity to 1.18 percent from 1.57 percent.

Koolearn’s stock price had been steadily climbing, gaining 2,560 percent to a record high of HKD75.55 (USD9.62) from last May to the end of this January, before the two cut their stakes. The current share price is still around 1,770 percent higher than the stock’s record low of HKD2.80 (36.2 US cents) in May 2022, despite falling by around 30 percent over the past 15 days.

The rise in Koolearn’s shares was driven by its move away from the original core business of online education toward e-commerce and product sales via livestreaming. During this process, many of Koolearn’s popular online teachers repositioned themselves as cyber celebrities for online sales.

The transformation of the business model brought an economic windfall to the listed company, as per Koolearn’s earnings report issued on Jan. 17, revenue was CNY2.08 billion (USD304.74 million) in the first half of the 2023 fiscal year ended Nov. 30, up over 260 percent year over year. It also made a net profit of CNY585 million (USD85.7 million), compared with a net loss of CNY544 million recorded during the same period in previous fiscal year.

Dongfang Zhenxuan, the e-commerce and live-streaming platform started by Koolearn last year, had total revenue of CNY1.77 billion in the first half of fiscal 2023, contributing about 85 percent of total revenue.

Dongfang Zhenxuan mainly sells agricultural produce, daily necessities, and books and it also has ties with short-video platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and other social media platforms.

Due to the successful business transformation, the firm officially changed its English name to East Buy Holding from Koolearn Technology Holding on Feb. 1.

Editor: Tom Litting