Amid allegations of insider trading, the company in which former NBAer Yao Ming has 1.053 million shares saw its share price close at RMB 20.16 ($3.23) on Wednesday, "a far cry from its peak" of RMB 113.98 ($18.27), according to Wu Jui-ta of WANT CHINA TIMES. As a result, the market value of Yao's shares in UniStrong has shrunk more than 70% from their highest level. Chinese-language web portal Eastday revealed that the Beijing-based manufacturer of GPS products "has been suffering shrinking profits in recent years and even incurred losses in three quarters of last year." Eastday reported that Yao began to endorse UniStrong in '05 "and was paid in stock for doing so." In Dec. '07, UniStrong transferred RMB 375,000 ($60,120) in shares to Yao "and transformed itself into a limited company six days later." Yao's stake was then converted into 675,000 shares in the company. Following two capital increments last year, Yao's stake was boosted to 1.053 million shares, worth RMB 21.27M ($3.41M) "in market value." After "factoring in dividend payouts over the past two years," Yao's shareholding has decreased by more than 70% in market value from the peak level of RMB 113 ($18.11) (WANT CHINA TIMES, 2/9).
