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Evicted tenants, unpaid landlords furious at cash-strapped, New York-listed Chinese home rental platform Danke
- Hundreds of tenants were evicted after Danke failed to pay landlords it was renting properties from, according to an angry crowd that gathered at the company’s offices last weekend
- Danke, also known as Phoenix Tree, denies it is bankrupt as its shares skyrocket after reports of a takeover bid by rival Xiangyu
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The evictions of tenants from flats in mainland China leased by one of the country’s biggest online home rental platforms has sparked renewed concerns about financial risks in the highly leveraged, fast-growing sector.
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New York-listed Phoenix Tree Holdings, commonly known as Danke, having taken upfront payments from tenants who had borrowed the money from banks, then failed to pay the landlords it was renting the properties from, according to furious tenants and landlords who gathered to protest at the company’s offices last weekend.
Many of the unpaid landlords ended their contracts with Danke and evicted the tenants, who now find themselves homeless while still paying back the initial rental loan to Danke’s partner bank, WeBank.
Danke did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from the Post.
Phoenix Tree’s shares shot up by almost a third in pre-market trading on Wednesday morning local time, after Chinese media outlet Thepaper.cn reported that 5I5J Holding Group, the owner of Danke’s rival Xiangyu, is in takeover talks with Danke.
The stock had skyrocketed by 75 per cent to US$2.40 overnight on Tuesday for reasons that were not clear at the time. The share price has tumbled by 83 per cent since it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in January.
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