Mihoyo sues a Chinese trust company for failing to get its money back
Mihoyo, the developer of the hit mobile game Genshin Impact, is reportedly suing a Chinese trust company for failing to cash out its wealth management products.
According to state-owned media Securities Times, Mihoyo and another gaming firm, Lilith, have filed suit against Minmetals Trust for “commercial trust issue,” and on July 25 that case will be heard in open court in Xining, Qinghai.
Since June of this year, numerous investors complained publicly that they failed to get their money back from Minmetals Trust on schedule. The money was expected to arrive on March 31 after they previously purchased the company’s wealth management program via China Merchants Bank. The wealth management product reportedly manages 2.5 billion yuan in total.
While Mihoyo and Lilith did not disclose whether they purchased wealth management products, the lawsuit is likely to be launched against Minmetals Trust for failing to pay on time, said the report.
With the great success of “Genshin Impact” in the global market, Mihoyo, founded in 2012, climbed to the ranks of the world’s top-grossing game developers. Revenue for the Shanghai-based gaming startup reached 32.854 billion yuan ($4.90 billion) in 2021, with a net profit of around 18.540 billion yuan. Genshin Impact has generated over $1.8 billion in revenue for the company in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
In March last year, Wu Yuefeng, a partner of Fengjing Capital, disclosed on Weibo that a Shanghai gaming company was holding 5 billion yuan in cash and was searching for someone to assist with fund management. Although the company’s name was not revealed, industry insiders believe that the well-known analyst is referring to Mihoyo.
According to sources close to the situation, the wealth management product purchased by Mihoyo and other investors may have been put in real estate projects, making it troublesome to get back.
In recent years, some financial institutions with financial inappropriaties have been feeling the effects of the housing market crash and the increase in bad debts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Minmetals Trust’s annual report, the firm allocated 7.594 trillion yuan (9.29 percent of total trust assets) to real estate investments in 2021.