China’s Wahaha heiress takes Hong Kong penny stock on a roller coaster ride

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A failed takeover bid by Kelly Zong for China Candy has sent the penny stock into a free fall

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Wahaha heiress Kelly Zong’s aborted acquisition of Hong Kong-listed China Candy sent the penny stock plunging. Photo: EPA

Celine Ge

Published: 6:57pm, 17 Jul 2017Updated: 10:58pm, 17 Jul 2017

An aborted acquisition deal by the heiress of Chinese beverage giant Hangzhou Wahaha has sent loss-making China Candy, a Hong Kong penny stock, into a free fall.

The candy maker’s share price has plummeted 70 per cent from 53 HK cents to 16 HK cents since Friday. It marked an abrupt end to a dizzying 400-per cent bull run since April following the announcement of the potential takeover bid by Kelly Zong Fuli, once dubbed “China’s richest daughter”.

The only scion of billionaire tycoon Zong Qinghou, who had topped China’s wealth list in 2013, made a rare move by using her personal social media account to disclose her failed attempt to buy out the little-known Hong Kong firm.

“We feel deeply sorry for the lapse of the offer ... but this is a positive and constructive exploration, allowing us to obtain some valuable experience,” Kelly Zong wrote in a post last Friday on Sina Weibo, a popular microblogging site.

The China Candy deal was the latest bid by the 35-year-old Wahaha heiress to control a listed firm through acquisitions. Her 71-year-old father’s beverage behemoth, better known in the West for its broken pact with France’s Danone in the 1990s, remains private since it was founded 30 years ago in the coastal city of Hangzhou.