FAST NEWS: DouYu Shares surge on special dividend plan

The Latest: Livestreaming game platform DouYu Holdings Ltd. (DOYU.US) on Wednesday announced a special cash dividend of $9.76 per share, to shareholders of record of ordinary shares and American Depositary Receipts (ADSs) as of the close of business on Aug. 21, 2024.

Looking Up: As there is still a long time to go before Aug. 21, the payment of a special dividend may attract investors to buy the company’s stock before the deadline, which is favorable to its performance.

Take Note: The company expects to pay a cash dividend in total of $300 million, which may indirectly reduce the amount of funds available for daily operations and future investments.

Digging Deeper: DouYu is one of China’s major online livestreaming game platforms, founded by Chen Shaojie in 2014. The Tencent(0700.HK)-backed company went public on the Nasdaq in 2019. But as it came under pressure from rivals like Huya (HUYA.US), Kuaishou (1024.HK), Bilibili (BILI.US; 9626.HK) and TikTok, the company ended up getting in trouble for having pornographic and other unsavory content on its platform and was ordered to clean it up. In the first quarter of this year, its revenue declined by 30% and average mobile monthly active users (MAUs) fell by 10% to 45.3 million amid the impact of the arrest of its chairman, Chen, in connection with a criminal investigation.

Market Reaction: Shares of DouYu surged 42.5% to $17.94 on Wednesday following the announcement, near the upper end of their 52-week range.

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