Class Action Suit Against Fang Holdings Ltd (NYSE:SFUN) Collapses

class-action-suit-against

A year-long class action lawsuit against Fang Holdings Ltd (NYSE:SFUN) has collapsed. The company said the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed all claims leveled against it by the lead plaintiffs in the class action. The suit was dismissed with prejudice, the company said in a statement.

Story continues below

The securities class action lawsuit was brought up by a disgruntled shareholder of Fang Holdings on October 30, 2015. The lawsuit sought to represent the interest of shareholders who acquired equity stake in Fang Holdings between May 20, 2015 and October 27, 2015. The company and some of its former and existing officials were sued in the securities class action.

However, on October 27, 2015, Fang Holdings said the court granted it and the sued officers the motion to shoot down the First Amended Complaint. With the lead plaintiffs failing to bring up further amendments to the suit, the case collapsed.

No payments

Fang Holdings explained that despite the case dragging on for slightly more than a year, neither it nor its officers paid anything in connection with the dismissal of the class action lawsuit.

Fang Holdings is the operator of the largest online real-estate portal in China by visits. The company’s services range from marketing, listing to value-added services. Fang Holdings is hoping to profit from China’s expanding newly affluent population that is also helping fuel growth at e-commerce companies like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and JD.com Inc (NASDAQ:JD).

3Q16 results

Fang Holdings is due to release its 3Q16 results on November 16. The company reported EPS loss of $0.08 on revenue of $287 million in 2Q16, beating the consensus estimates that called for EPS loss of $0.12 on revenue of $269.8 million. In 3Q15, Fang Holdings posted EPS profit of $0.08, again beating the consensus estimate that called for EPS of $0.03 for the quarter. Revenue of $248.5 million in 3Q15 also topped the consensus estimate of $247.3 million.

Fang Holdings stock is down nearly 60% YTD.

An ad to help with our costs