(Yicai Global) Oct. 11 -- 58.Com has denied a report claiming the Chinese life services provider that owns online real estate platform Anjuke has started layoffs at its Housing Business Group.

The Beijing-based company said the news was not true, according to China News Agency's media outlet Zhongxin Jingwei.

Technology media 36Kr yesterday reported that 58.Com was planning to lay off over 20 percent of its employees, mainly from the planning, operations, sales, design, products, and information technology departments of the Anjuke and 58 Tongcheng to-customer businesses. 58.Com's HBG has over 9,000 staffers.

58.Com is a Chinese group in the life services sector, with business areas focusing on real estate, automotive, recruitment, finance, second-hand goods, online-to-offline life services, and film and TV investments.

In April last year, Anjuke Group, which integrates Anjuke, 58 Real Estate, Aifang, and Qiaofang, filed for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its operating revenue was CNY6.2 billion (USD864 million) in 2018, CNY7.6 billion in 2019, and CNY8.1 billion in 2020, the prospectus showed. Net profit tallied CNY1.9 billion in 2018, CNY2.3 billion in 2019, and CNY2 billion in 2020. But since October last year, no prospectus has been filed.

Editor: Futura Costaglione