(Yicai) July 4 -- Shares of Douyu International Holdings skyrocketed in New York after the Chinese livestreaming platform announced a special cash dividend of USD300 million.

Douyu [NASDAQ: DOYU] surged almost 43 percent to close at USD17.94 yesterday but was 0.5 percent down in after-hours trading in New York as of 3.36 a.m.

Due to the firm's cash position, it will offer a non-recurring dividend of almost USD9.80 per American depositary share, distributed around Aug. 30, to return value to investors, the Wuhan-headquartered streaming platform that mainly has gaming content announced yesterday.

Tencent Holdings owned about 38.2 percent of Douyu indirectly as of March 31, making the social media and gaming giant the firm's largest shareholder, which would suggest a win of over USD110 million. Douyu’s founder and Chief Executive Chen Shaojie held an over 17 percent stake in the platform, which should bring him around USD53 million.

Last November, Chen was arrested by the police in Chengdu on suspicion of running an illegal gambling establishment online. An interim management committee is currently in charge of operating Douyu.

"We remain dedicated to protecting shareholders' interests despite the challenging macroeconomic and operating environment that we continue to face," the committee said.

The company mentioned in its latest earnings report on June 5 that it has voluntarily given authorities earnings worth around CNY111.7 million due to past illegal activities of some third-party livestreamers and recorded them as operating expenses.

The move resulted in a big dent in earnings. In the first quarter, Douyu logged a net deficit of CNY88 million (USD12.1 million) and its adjusted net loss reached CNY85.7 million, according to the report. Revenue dropped almost 30 percent to CNY1.04 billion (USD143 million) from a year ago.

The company still had plenty of cash to spare as its cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term and long-term bank assets amounted to about CNY6.8 billion (USD929.7 million) at the time.

Moreover, the firm has a USD20 million share repurchase plan in place for this year. During the earlier conference call, management said Douyu already bought back ADS worth USD2.7 million in the first quarter and purchasing continued in the second quarter.

Editor: Emmi Laine