Electric vehicle maker Nio denied on Sunday reports claiming that the company’s co-founder and president, Lihong Qin, had sold his 10.5 million-share stake.
Automotive bloggers shared on Weibo that more than one securities platform showed that Nio co-founder Qin Lihong had allegedly offloaded 10.5 million shares of Nio stock.
“Did Qin Lihong just liquidate his Nio shares? What kind of signal is this?” one of the bloggers wrote on Weibo, sparking speculation that he had completely exited his position.
The post included a screenshot allegedly showing that Lihong, who founded Nio with William Li in 2014, had exited his position.
In a statement, the EV maker said the rumours are “seriously false information.”
“Today, certain securities information platforms and social media channels began circulating seriously false information regarding recent changes in the shareholding of Nio’s Co-Founder and President, Qin Lihong,” the post reads.
Nio said not only its co-founder did not sell 10.5 million shares, but also that the executive did not sell any shares.
The EV maker said “there has been no change in Qin Lihong’s shareholding” adding “the information in question is entirely false.”
The Shanghai-based group also said it “constitutes a serious disruption to the normal order of the capital markets, misleads investors, and interferes with the company’s daily operations.”
“Some of the involved securities information platforms have already removed the false content,” Nio stated before informing that it will pursue legal action.
“We will pursue legal action to protect our legitimate rights and interests and reserve the right to further investigate and hold accountable those responsible for disseminating or reposting such information.”
Nio said on Sunday it delivered 23,231 vehicles in May, marking a 13.1% increase from a year earlier, as sales spanned its three brands—Nio, Onvo and Firefly.
The group’s premium Nio brand accounted for 13,270 units, while Onvo, its family-oriented sub-brand, delivered 6,281 vehicles — achieving its second-best result ever.
Firefly, the company’s newly launched sub-brand that rivals both BMW’s MINI and Smart, recorded 3,680 deliveries in its first full month on the market.
