Investors in Renren, once touted as the Facebook of China, have appealed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to stop the company selling assets to a private entity controlled by its chief executive Joseph Chen and SoftBank, the Japanese conglomerate.
The planned deal has sparked a grassroots revolt against the management of a US-listed company by mainly Chinese retail investors — ironically organised on a website part-owned by Renren.
The crown jewel among the assets, which are due to be sold to the private vehicle next month, is a near-15 per cent stake in SoFi, the fast-growing online lender. At SoFi’s last private valuation of $4.3bn, this would be worth more than $600m, but Renren is valuing it at about half that.