Chinese tech giant LeEco may be facing the biggest crisis in its history.
According to multiple Chinese media reports Tuesday, LeEco's founder and CEO, Jia Yueting, and his wife's assets which are worth about 1.237 billion yuan ( 182 million US dollars), have been frozen by the Shanghai High People's Court.
Meanwhile, a China Merchants Bank said in a statement on the same day that it had successfully petitioned the local court to have some of LeEco's assets frozen because subsidiary, Leview Mobile HK Limited, had been late on making interest payments on a loan.
A LeEco spokesman said the asset-freeze application was "mainly related to company's smartphone business", and LeEco will raise further cash to turn the tables.
It's believed that LeEco has been suffering from a tough financial pressure for a long time due to the company's rapid rate of expansion.
Jia Yueting admitted that the company was facing great cash crisis last year. /VCG Photo
In 2016, Jia Yueting said in public that the company was facing great cash crisis. It was the first time the CEO admitted that his great ambition may make the company "worse than thought".
When Jia Yueting founded LeEco 13 years ago, it was tasked to be the "Chinese YouTube", a streaming video site in China. However, the company expanded rapidly over past several years, which has almost covered every sector of consumer electronics, ranging from smartphones, online content to smart cars.
LeEco was short of investment as well, especially when the government ordered more strict management on business units recently.
Related Stories:
