简体中文
Guotai Junan Securities made an official apology to car hailing app Didi Chuxing on Wednesday night after having mistaken an unidentified person for a senior executive of the company during a roadshow on Tuesday morning.
Mainland Chinese website Sina published an online story on Tuesday morning quoting Zhang Bei, vice president of Didi Chuxing, as saying the company would cut the subsidy to passengers after the merger with Uber China, during a morning road show held by Guotai Junan Securities, a leading brokerage company based on the mainland.
Didi Chuxing posted a statement on its official microblog on Sina on Tuesday afternoon, denying the subsidy cut claims and expressing strong dissatisfaction with Guotai Junan Securities, asking the brokerage to apologise.
“We have confirmed internally that Zhang Bei has never attended any teleconference with any brokerage companies. The speaker in the meeting was not Zhang Bei himself...we have reported the case to the public security organisation,” the statement said.
“Guotai Junan did not verify the identity of the speaker ahead of the teleconference. It has made a serious negative impact on our company,” it added.
Sina deleted the story in the afternoon, while Guotai Junan was not available to comment on Tuesday.
According to a written invitation message obtained by the Post, the meeting was organised by Guotai Junan Securities to discuss the market impact brought about by the merger between Didi and Uber, while a vice president of Didi surnamed Zhang – in Chinese it literally read “Zhang Zong, Zong being an abbreviation of general manager in Chinese – would share his opinion.
In an excerpt of the recording of the meeting obtained by the Post, the person identified as Zhang Zong talked about Didi’s strategy in China, disclosed the number of the daily orders received by the platform, and noted it would maintain the subsidy to drivers.
In a statement published on its official Wechat account, Guotai Junan Securities said the person who attended the meeting was not Zhang Bei, a senior executive of Didi, nor was he even a “current employee” of Didi.
But Guotai Junan Securities said they had never identified the speaker as Zhang Bei during the meeting. The brokerage, however, blamed a third-party agent for making the mistake when “inviting an expert in the industry”.
“We are deeply sorry to Didi Chuxing and Zhang Bei himself. And the third-party company will be held accountable,” the statement said.
Guotai Junan did not identify the actual speaker or the third party in the statement.
“Didi was very nervous and angry about this matter, as the issue of cutting subsidies to passengers is very sensitive now,” said a source with Guotai Junan Securities, who requested anonymity. The source also said mainland brokerage companies now rely heavily on third-party agents to introduce speakers on road shows, a practise that remains a weak link in its compliance management .
The Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission of China have both voiced concerns about the potential monopoly brought about by the merger of Didi and Uber, and are closely following the deal.
(SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)
