(Yicai) Aug. 14 -- Shares of Hainan Haiyao fell after the struggling Chinese pharmaceutical company said its vice chairman and director has resigned due to personal reasons.

Hainan Haiyao [SHE: 000566] fell 4.9 percent to CNY3.30 (46 US cents) a share as of 2.25 p.m. in Shenzhen today, after earlier dropping by as much as 5.5 percent.

Liu Xicheng, who is also the former controlling shareholder of Hainan Haiyao, will no longer hold any posts at the company, the Haikou-based firm announced yesterday.

Problems Liu caused in the past, such as financial compliance, have been holding Hainan Haiyao back in recent years, Yicai learned.

According to the announcement by Hainan Haiyao on June 28, there are 28 unresolved lawsuits involving the company and its subsidiaries, with a total litigation amount of CNY1.15 billion (USD160.5 million), or 52 percent of the parent company's latest audited net assets. The firms are the plaintiffs in 18 cases for CNY877 million (USD122.2 million) and the defendants in the rest.

Hainan Haiyao saw its operating revenue plunge to CNY1.5 billion last year from CNY2.6 billion in 2018 while reporting a net loss after deducting non-recurring gains and losses of over CNY100 million (USD14 million) a year for five straight years, totaling more than CNY3.4 billion. China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission took over the firm in 2020.

Hainan Haiyao expects to have swung into the red with a net loss of CNY130 million to CNY170 million in the six months ended June 30, it previously forecasted.

Hainan Haiyao inked a deal with Greek peer Pharmathen for exclusive rights to commercialize its Paliperidone long-acting injection, a schizophrenia treatment, in China, it announced on Aug. 12. Its stock surged by the daily trading limit yesterday thanks to the agreement.

Editor: Martin Kadiev