(Yicai) Aug. 1 -- IFlytek’s stock price fell after the Chinese artificial intelligence developer said its largest shareholder, China Mobile, plans to cut its equity holding.

iFlytek [SHE: 002230] closed down 3.2 percent at CNY60.85 (USD8.49) a share in Shenzhen today. The stock has soared nearly 86 percent this year.

China Mobile intends to sell up to 23.2 million iFlytek shares, or as much as 1 percent of its stake, through concentrated bidding or bulk transactions between Aug. 22 and Dec. 31 to recover investment costs based on an equity management scheme, the Hefei-based AI firm said yesterday.

The mobile carrier invested in iFlytek in 2013 when it listed on the Shenzhen stock market. Since then, it has reduced the size of its holding several times. China Mobile is iFlytek’s largest shareholder with a 10.7 percent stake.

China Mobile is upbeat about iFlytek’s development outlook and has been supporting the company’s business development since its first investment a decade ago, iFlytek noted in yesterday’s statement.

IFlytek expects net profit to have narrowed 71 percent to 80 percent to between CNY55 million and CNY80 million (USD7.7 million and USD11.2 million) in the six months ended June 30 from a year ago. The company returned to a positive development track in the first half following the adverse impact of US government pressure, it said.

Editor: Futura Costaglione