(Yicai) Nov. 3 -- Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, has denied rumors claiming that an investigation found out that the Chinese Apple supplier has CNY180 billion (USD24.7 billion) worth of tax arrears and authorities will seize around 20,000 soccer fields worth of land.

The news is fabricated groundless rumors that severely harmed the company’s reputation, Foxconn noted yesterday. The firm has consistently been operating according to laws and regulations, and its production and operation are normal, it added.

The rumors started spreading on social media after Global Times reported on Oct. 22 that Chinese tax authorities recently investigated key units of Foxconn in some provincial-level regions, including Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, and natural resources regulators conducted on-site inspections of corporate land used by Foxconn’s subsidiaries in regions such as Henan and Hubei provinces.

Foxconn’s plants in the Chinese mainland are operating normally, Yicai learned.

On Nov. 1, Foxconn also issued a recruitment notice for hourly workers for its plant in Shenzhen’s Longhua district, offering CNY22 (USD3) per hour. However, the employment-related WeChat account of Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou, which mainly manufactures iPhones, has not released any information since the end of September.

Founded in Taiwan by Terry Gou, Foxconn is a contract manufacturer counting US tech giant Apple and Japanese multinational Sony as its clients. It is the world’s biggest provider of electronic and technological manufacturing services and had around one million employees at its peak.

Foxconn began investment in the Chinese mainland in 1998. Now, it has more than 40 industrial parks there.

In the first half of the year, Foxconn Industrial Internet, the Shanghai-listed unit of Foxconn, reported revenue of about CNY206.8 billion, down 8.2 percent from a year earlier. Its net profit rose 4.2 to around CNY7.2 billion (USD980.3 million) in the period.

Foxconn Industrial’s shares [SHA: 601138] were trading up 1.3 percent at CNY14.79 as of 1.15 p.m. today.

Editor: Futura Costaglione