(Yicai Global) June 21 -- Shares of Gree Electric Appliances, the world’s biggest maker of home air conditioners, sank to the lowest in more than 22 months after its announced a plan to offer employees stock at almost half of last week’s closing price.

Gree [SHE:000651] closed 4.8 percent down today at CNY51.11 (USD7.90), the lowest since August 2019. It ended at CNY53.86 a share on June 18.

The Zhuhai-based white goods firm plans to offer up to 108.4 million shares at CNY27.86 (USD4.31) each to as many as 12,000 staff, including eight senior managers, it said in a statement yesterday. Chairwoman Dong Mingzhu will buy 30 million shares, or 27.68 percent of the total CNY3 billion (USD464 million) on offer, for CNY830 million (USD128.4 million).

The offer will be made in two phases, each of which will have different business performance criteria, Gree said. For the first, Gree’s target is to lift net profit by at least 10 percent this year, and have a cash dividend of not less than 50 percent of net profit, or at least CNY2 (31 US cents) per share. For the second phase, the target is to boost profit by at least 20 percent next year, and make a cash dividend of not less than 50 percent of net profit, or a minimum CNY2 a share.

Considering that Gree had a low business base last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the offer price is too low and the conditions are too easy, a number of investors said on Weibo and on stock exchange platform Gub. Dong’s share of the offer is also too high, according to some.

Gree announced a CNY15 billion stock buyback plan on May 26. The repurchased shares will be used for the employee stock ownership plan or stock ownership incentives, Gree said.

Editor: Futura Costaglione