(Yicai Global) April 15 -- Koolearn Technology Holding's Hong Kong-listed shares slumped intraday despite its rebuttal of mass layoffs.

Koolearn's stock price [HKG: 1797] dropped as much as 7 percent intraday to HKD15.92 (USD2.10), the lowest point for this month. The company went public in March 2019.

The private education provider is not planning to fire many employees, the Paper report yesterday, citing the Beijing-based firm. New Oriental Education & Technology Group is the owner of Koolearn.

The academic team of Koolearn's middle school department is moving to Beijing from Xi'an, and the middle school business division has a new head, the company added.

Some of Koolearn's courses have only half as many teachers as they did during the 2020 summer vacation after the company fired workers such as tutors and teaching assistants over the past month, Caijing magazine's LatePost reported yesterday, citing insiders.

Founded in 2005, Koolearn reported a net loss of CNY674 million (USD103.1 million) during the six months ended last November, widening by more than seven times from a year ago, according to its earnings report. Its revenue grew by 19 percent to CNY677 million as its number of paying students climbed by nearly 63 percent to 2.1 million.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi