(Yicai Global) July 17 -- Electric carmaker Le Supercar said yesterday that recent media reports have misrepresented the wealth of its founder, Jia Yueting, shaping public perception in a way that has adversely affected Jia and Leshi Holding (Beijing) Co. (LeEco).

Le Supercar said that reports had referred to properties as Jia's private houses, but the properties were purchased by Le Supercar three years ago when it was starting up. Le Supercar said that the properties, which are located by the firm's research and development headquarters, are its general office and reception office in the US -- not Jia's private homes. None of Jia's family has lived at the properties since he started the auto business in the US in 2013, the company said.

Media reports had indicated that Jia owns five luxury villas in the US with a combined value of tens of millions of dollars.

Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp. [SHE:300104] (LeTV) disclosed performance forecasts on July 14, estimating it will suffer a loss of USD94.1 million to USD94.8 million (CNY636.68 million to CNY641.68 million) in the first half of 2017. It made a profit of CNY284.38 million during the same period last year.

LeTV said that during the reporting period, its operating costs including those for copyright distribution, content distribution network (CDN) and labor did not decrease, while its income from advertisements, clients and memberships slumped because of LeEco's capital liquidity issues and their impact on customer retention.

To retain exclusive broadcast rights to quality programs, LeTV did not engage in copyright distribution in the second quarter, leading to a decrease in income in the area compared with the same period last year. During the reporting period, the scale of provision for asset impairment loss was about CNY230 million, including provisions for copyright impairment of intangible assets of CNY130 million, depreciation reserves of CNY2 million and bad debt reserves for receivables of CNY98 million.

LeTV and Le Supercar are LeEco's subsidiaries. Jia resigned as chairman of LeTV on July 6, 2017, and started serving as the chairman of LeCar.