Smartphone maker Gionee cuts 50% of manufacturing staff

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Gionee will lay off 50 percent of the staff in its industrial park amid a financial crisis, the company said in a post on its Weibo account on Monday night.

After the layoffs, the company will ensure the normal operations of its production lines, as well as assistance to original design manufacturers and fulfilling orders in the domestic and overseas markets, the post said.

Gionee’s financial crisis, emerging at the beginning of 2018, has had a collateral impact on several listed companies that are among the Shenzhen-based company’s major suppliers.

For instance, Shenzhen Ofilm Tech Co reported on February 6 a default of 626 million yuan ($99.67 million) by Gionee due to the latter’s financial problems, according to Beijing-based financial newspaper Securities Daily.

The Dongguan No.1 People’s Court imposed a two-year freeze on the assets of Liu Lirong, chairman of Gionee, on January 10. The assets represented 41.1 percent of the stake Liu held, domestic news site sohu.com reported.

Led by Liu, the company has been seeking new financing, the Securities Daily said. The company owes 8.6 billion yuan to banks and 4 billion yuan to suppliers.

Founded in 2009, the company has smartphone production capacity of 100 million units per year, according to Gionee.