(Yicai Global) Aug. 25 -- HC Group’s shares fell after staff said the company that trailblazed e-commerce in China long before Alibaba Group Holding and JD.Com had shut a telemarketing unit.

HC [HKG: 2280] lost 5.8 percent to finish at 32 Hong Kong cents (4 US cents) today, paring its market cap to HKD425.7 million (USD54.3 million). 

Employees at the telemarketing subsidiary, Huicong 360 Technology, took to social media yesterday, saying they were notified that the Beijing-based unit would shut today and some staff would be put on indefinite leave awaiting reassignment.

An insider at HC told Yicai Global that only Huicong 360 has ceased operations, while the rest of the group is operating normally. Huicong 360 was a small part of the wider organization and the group has no plans to close any other businesses, the person added.

Huicong 360 was set up in January last year, according to details on corporate information platform Tianyancha.

Founded in 1992 as Hc360.Com, Beijing-based HC provides e-commerce services to industrial users. Listed on Hong Kong’s Growth Enterprise Market in December 2003 as HC International Information, it migrated to the bourse’s main board in 2014.

HC’s net loss shrank 28 percent to CNY74.7 million (USD10.9 million) in the first half of this year from the same period of 2021, according to the company’s latest earnings report. Revenue fell 14 percent to CNY6.1 billion (USD891 million).

Editor: Futura Costaglione