SHARES of East Buy Holding Ltd., the livestreaming arm of education company New Oriental, plunged more than 20% in Hong Kong on Friday on news that its top influencer Dong Yuhui has resigned a day earlier.

Shares opened 15% down and continued to fall to close at HK$9.5 (US$1.2), down 23.39%. Earlier Friday, Yu Minhong, founder of New Oriental, said during a shareholder meeting that he will not be involved in any business or equity interests related to Dong’s eponymous venture Time with Yuhui, which operated under East Buy. Yu assured that no well-known influencers will establish independent workshops under East Buy.

East Buy will collaborate with 800 New Oriental teaching locations to open offline stores to allow consumers to experience products and services sold on its livestreaming channels, Yu was quoted by the China Daily as saying.

East Buy on Thursday announced that Dong decided to step down from his role as a senior manager of an affiliated entity of the company, effective Thursday.

The company cited Dong’s career aspirations and his desire to manage personal time as reasons for his departure. Dong later said in an online post that his exit, as with the divesture of Time with Yuhui, was mutually agreed upon.

Also Thursday, New Oriental agreed to sell, and Dong agreed to purchase, 100% equity of Time with Yuhui for nearly 76.6 million yuan. The latter saw a net profit of 141 million yuan in less than a year of establishment as of June 30.

Dong became a top social media influencer around mid-2022 during a livestreaming session organized by East Buy.

(SD-Agencies)