(Yicai) Sept. 7 -- Shares of China’s Olo Home Furnishings fell by their daily trading limit after the custom furniture maker said one of its shareholders has allegedly breached the Shanghai bourse’s divestment disclosure rules.

Olo [SHA: 603326] fell 10 percent to close at CNY14.52 (USD1.98) a share in Shanghai today, snapping an eight-day run-up that more than doubled the stock’s value.

Shareholder Yu Fanyi quietly sold almost all of his equity in Olo over the last three months without making a public announcement, the Nanjing-based firm said yesterday. That enabled him to profit from a surge in real estate stocks after China recently took steps to buoy the housing market.

Yu and persons acting in concert offloaded in excess of 22.4 million of Olo’s shares, around 7 percent of the total, between June 30 and Sept. 6, the company said, with Yu’s holding falling to just 4,200 shares.

Per a regulatory note issued by the Shanghai Stock Exchange the same day, it would appear that Yu violated its rules by not declaring this major divestment. Shareholders with more than 5 percent of a firm’s equity must publicly disclose if they make any changes to their shareholding in excess of 5 percent, it said, adding that the investor is not permitted to buy or sell any more stock for three days after the announcement.

The SSE has yet to penalize Yu and the other Olo stock sellers.

Olo is not a top performer among China’s listed furniture makers. It ranked 16th out of 31 on data platform Wind’s home furnishing index for first-half profit, and its earnings have been unstable.

From 2020 to last year, net profit at Olo rose 43 percent to CNY220 million (USD30 million), plunged 174 percent to a CNY162 million loss, and surged 187 percent to CNY141 million, while operating revenue rose 19 percent to CNY1.58 billion, 17 percent to CNY1.73 billion and fell 3.4 percent to CNY1.67 billion.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Kim Taylor