(Yicai Global) June 27 -- Shares of Leshi Internet Information and Technology, the listed arm of Jia Yueting's debt-ridden LeEco tech empire, have gained more than 14 percent this week after cash-rich Evergrande Group invested in another of the Chinese entrepreneur's ventures. But there's no evidence to suggest that Leshi will ever see any of that money.

Hong Kong-based Evergrande Health Industry Group said on June 25 that it had agreed to pay HKD6.7 billion (USD854 million) for a 45 percent stake in Season Smart, a company that owns 45 percent of Smart King, the parent company of Jia's US-based electric car startup Faraday Future. That was enough to drive Leshi Internet's shares higher.

The stock [SHE:300104] gained almost 3.8 percent today to close at CNY3.83 (USD0.58). The company has lost more than 90 percent of its value, having tumbled from a high of CNY44.7 in May 2015.

But Leshi Internet cannot confirm whether there is a direct or indirect relationship between Faraday Future's funding source and the receivables of Leshi's related parties or the loans that Jia has failed to repay, the Beijing-based company said yesterday. 

In February, Leshi said about CNY5.62 billion (USD849 million) of its debt would mature by the end of this year, which is about two-thirds the firm's total loans and liabilities.

Jia founded the tech startup in 2011. He stepped down as its chairman last July and headed to the US to focus on Faraday Future. He ignored an official order to return to China at the end of last year, and in early January he entrusted his wife and elder sibling with handling, as he termed it, the "debt crisis" at Leshi Internet. That crisis still awaits resolution.

Editor: Emmi Laine