Huazhu Group Limited is “a real company that lied about the ownership of its hotel portfolio to produce fake financials,” according to a short-report published by Bonitas Research. The firm said its fieldwork in Beijing and Shanghai “confirmed that Huazhu secretly supported operating costs of franchisee hotels owned by undisclosed current Huazhu employees and other undisclosed related parties.” The report, published on the firm’s website, added: “We believe that Huazhu generated significantly less profit and held significantly less PP&E assets than reported in both its SEC filings and HKEX Global Offering. We are short Huazhu because we believe that Huazhu’s actual financial performance justifies a significantly lower stock price.”