(Yicai Global) Jan. 12 -- Jia Yueting, founder of financially-troubled Leshi Holding and LeEco brand, has sold all shares of Coolpad Group Ltd. he owned in a matter of one week. Yueting previously paid CNY3 billion (USD462 million) to buy Coolpad [HKG:2369], LeEco's smartphone unit. The sale marks a new step in cash-crunched group's debt repayment saga.

Coolpad's major shareholder Leview Mobile HK Limited sold over 551 million shares, accounting for about 10.95 percent of Coolpad's total equity, the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday. Upon completion of the transaction, Leview Mobile ceased to be shareholder of Coolpad. The buyer is Zeal Limited, a company incorporated in Cayman Islands. However, the statement did not disclose the value of the deal.

Hong Kong Companies Registry information shows that Leview Mobile is affiliated to Jia and was established in February 2015. The operator of LeEco mobile phones unit is Leshi Mobile & Intelligent Information Technology (Beijing) Corp., which is a subsidiary of Leview Mobile.

Leview Mobile sold 897 million shares of Coolpad at 0.9 HKD per share, with a total value of about HKD808 million (USD103 million) on Jan. 4. The buyer was Power Sun Ventures Limited, a company registered in British Virgin Islands.

The proceeds from the Coolpad share sale deal were directly paid to China Merchants Bank to offset part of the group's debt (initial principal and interest of about HKD1.4 billion) with a debt service ratio of about 60 percent, said Gan Wei, Jia Yueting's wife, on her microblogging Sina Weibo account on Jan 7.

In 2015 and 2016, Jia Yueting spent CNY3 billion to buy 28.9 percent of Coolpad shares from its founder Guo Deying. Since then, Coolpad, along with LeEco, run into financial difficulties. Due to its failure to release 2016 results on schedule, Coolpad Group suspended trading on March 31, 2017.