(Yicai Global) May 18 -- Ping An Healthcare and Technology’s shares fell almost 10 percent after China's largest healthcare platform deposed its founder chairman. Its share price had almost doubled since March.

Ping An Healthcare [HKG:1833], also known as Ping An Good Doctor, slid by as much as 9.8 percent today to close nearly 8.5 percent lower at HKD102.80 (USD13.26), with a market valuation of HKD109 billion (USD14 billion).

Chairman, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Wang Tao has been removed from his posts and replaced with Fang Weihao, who has served as co-chairman and CEO since early last year, the unit of behemoth insurer Ping An Insurance said in a statement over the weekend.

Wang became chairman and CEO of Ping An Health Insurance in 2013 and spearheaded the set up of Ping An Good Doctor in 2014. Fang joined Ping An Insurance in August 2012 and co-founded Ping An International Financial Leasing where he serves as chairman and CEO.

"There are rumors that Wang’s departure has to do with the company’s suboptimal operating performance, which may not be sufficient to support its current market value of HKD100 billion,” an industry insider told Yicai Global.

Such concerns belie a strong market performance. The firm’s share price has almost doubled from mid-March when it stood at HKD59.55. But the growth has more to do with the coronavirus outbreak, the insider said. Investors are optimistic about the medical sector as a whole and expect a favorable performance from internet healthcare players.

Shanghai-based Ping An Good Doctor has yet to turn a profit despite a rapid growth in revenue. Last year it posted a 52 percent jump in revenue to CNY5.1 billion (USD716.4 million), but it still had a net loss of CNY734 million (USD103.2 million), though that was 20 percent smaller than in 2018.

Of those firms listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange with a market value of over HKD100 billion, very few have revenue of just CNY5 billion and even fewer suffer losses, according to data from financial information service provider Wind.

There are some other “unstable factors" in its performance, an analyst said. For example, the company's gross profit margin is narrowing, growth in the number of registered users and monthly active users is slowing and the company's business is still too dependent on the parent firm, he added.

The online-to-offline healthcare servicing platform provides family doctors, electronic health records and health management services to consumers using artificial intelligence technology. It had 315 million registered users as of the end of last year, a gain of 50 million compared with the year before. There were 66.9 million monthly active users and 3 million monthly subscribers over the same period.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor