Gome's founder surrendered the company to a creditor for HK$377M

Gome, once China's largest appliance retailer, spent the years after 2021 losing its stores, its suppliers and its sales — a collapse documented store by store until, by the end of 2025, what remained was mostly debt. The annual report showed total assets of ¥2.529 billion against liabilities of ¥19.952 billion — a 788.8% asset-liability ratio — cash of just ¥5.35 million, FY2025 revenue of ¥156 million, down almost 60%, and another loss of ¥1.721 billion on top of four years of losses before it.

The last financing instrument was the company itself. Under an agreement dated January 16, 2026, Gome issued 25.1 billion new shares at HK$0.015 each to settle HK$377 million of debt owed to Shanghai Jinboding — a creditor that by June held 29.61% and had become the largest shareholder. Founder Huang Guangyu, who rebuilt the chain into a national champion and once ranked among China's richest, saw his and his wife's holding diluted to 6.74%. The shares trade around a cent of a Hong Kong dollar and the whole company is worth about HK$670 million.

The endgame moved fast after that. On June 15, 2026 Gome failed to pay the ¥100 million principal and interest on its '20 Gome 01' bond; within weeks courts accepted bankruptcy liquidation of the Guangzhou and Xi'an trading subsidiaries, and a Wenzhou affiliate filed its own application. The listed shell now belongs to a debt collector, the operating companies are entering liquidation one by one, and the question left is not turnaround but delisting.

Issued 25.1B new shares at HK$0.015 each to settle HK$377M of debt, handing a 29.61% stake to creditor Shanghai Jinboding and diluting the founder to 6.74%.

Five years of losses had exhausted every other instrument: no supplier credit, no bank lines, no buyer for the stores — only the share register still had value, so the debt was paid with it.

The arithmetic forced the handover: ¥19.952 billion of liabilities against ¥2.529 billion of assets and ¥5.35 million of cash leaves nothing to negotiate with except ownership itself.

Control passed at a creditor's price — HK$377 million for a 29.61% stake — because the alternative was a disorderly collapse with even less recovered.

Gome spent 2021-2025 losing its stores, suppliers and cash; the last asset left was the share register. A company with ¥5M of cash and ¥20B of debt has only one decision remaining: who takes it over.

Shanghai Jinboding now owns what once was China's appliance king, and its options are thin: the stores are gone, the brand is broken, and the operating subsidiaries are entering bankruptcy liquidation one after another — Guangzhou and Xi'an already accepted by the courts. The listed shell's only remaining function is as a vehicle for whatever the creditor can salvage or sell. For Huang Guangyu, who founded the company in 1986 and fought through two decades of retail wars, the end was not a battle but a signature: 25.1 billion shares for HK$377 million of debt.