China’s ‘Un-Real’ Estate Platform – 12/16/2021

Carson Block of Muddy Waters Capital makes the case that Chinese real estate platform Ke Holdings ($BEKE) is inflating almost every key metric underpinning its business, along with revenue, likening it to the fraud scene with Luckin Coffee. Block outlines how data collected from Ke’s own app, Chinese regulatory filings, and from on the ground research all point to massive overstatements of the number of stores and agents on the platform, the gross transaction value of deals taking place on the platform, and the amount of revenue the company is generating. He highlights a number of schemes the company uses to improve its perception and argues that the company has likely used an inflated acquisition to mask the absence of cash.