FAST NEWS: Tongdao Liepin buys $19 million in structured deposit products

The Latest: Online recruitment platform Tongdao Liepin Group (6100.HK) announced Monday it has subscribed to two structured deposit products from Xiamen International Bank through its subsidiaries for a total of 135 million yuan ($19 million).

Looking Up: The company believes the investments are relatively low-risk and represent an effective use of temporarily idle funds.

Take Note: The use of its funds to subscribe to wealth management products may give the impression the company isn’t focusing enough on its core recruitment services.

Digging Deeper: Founded in Beijing in 2011 and listed in Hong Kong in 2018, Tongdao Liepin provides a wide range of free and paid talent-matching services to individuals and enterprises through its liepin.com website, its mobile app and its WeChat platform. It also provides outsourced recruitment, assessment and training services to companies. In the first half of the year, the company’s non-GAAP operating profit doubled to 93.95 million yuan, mainly due to an increase in individual and corporate customers, as well as a reduction in selling, administrative and R&D expenses.

Market Reaction: Tongdao Liepin’s shares fell on Tuesday, closing 3.3% lower at HK$2.06 by the midday break. The stock now trades near the lower end of its 52-week range.

Translation by A. Au

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