Third quarter results explain sell-off of 500.com stock

Reports on Monday that investors had sold off 500.com stock, causing the share price to plummet 25 percent (see previous  report) were followed Thursday by the release of the China-facing online lottery company’s dismal third quarter results, suggesting that at least some shareholders had anticipated bad news.

The formerly promising company has been hard hit by the suspension of online lottery activity in China since early 2015 on allegations of official corruption, and the Q3 report showed the continuing damage to 500.com’s financial performance.

Management reported:

* Net loss of RMB 75.3 million (US$11.3 million) for the third quarter of 2016, but lower than the RMB 80.7 million incurred in Q3-2015;

* Net revenues nil, continuing the trend triggereed by the lottery “suspension”;

* Operating loss was RMB 81.6 million (US$12.2 million), compared with operating loss of RMB 89.4 million for the second quarter of 2016, and operating loss of RMB 79.2 million for the third quarter of 2015;

CEO Zhengming Pan, reported:

“We voluntarily and temporarily suspended our online lottery sales operations in response to the promulgation of the Self-Inspection Notice. Such temporary and voluntary suspension materially and adversely impacted our financial and operational results for the third quarter of 2016.”

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