(Yicai Global) Dec. 28 -- Shares of Chinese real estate developer Yango Group slumped after the troubled firm said that units of Taikang Insurance Group have cut their holdings at a discounted price of CNY1.2 billion (USD188.4 million).

Yango's stock price [SHE: 000671] dropped as much as 10 percent to CNY3.09 (60 US cents) intraday. The shares are more than half down in value this year.

The Beijing-based insurer's units Taikang Life and Taikang Pension & Insurance have agreed with Taihe Construction Materials for the latter to purchase a 7.4 percent stake in Yango for CNY936 million (USD147 million), the Shanghai-based property firm said in a statement yesterday. The price per share is about half of what the insurer paid for each a bit more than a year ago.

On the same day, Taikang Pension & Insurance sold an additional CNY253 million worth of Yango shares, or 2 percent of the total, in a block trade.

The real estate company is in financial distress. Fujian province-based Sunshine Group, the biggest shareholder of Yango with its 18.8 percent stake, defaulted on a repayment of USD300 million on Dec. 21.

The recent transfers have been priced low. In September 2020, Taikang Life Insurance and related entities spent CNY3.4 billion to buy 555 million Yango shares, priced at CNY6.09 apiece.

The latest buyer is a small firm. Founded in 2019, Changzhou-based Taihe Construction Materials has CNY30 million (USD4.7 million) in registered capital.

Yango's executives have also sold their shares at a discount recently. On Dec. 24, the firm said that its Executive Chairman Zhu Rongbin gained about CNY15 million by selling almost 4.6 million shares via a block trade. The average price was CNY3.3.

Between 2017 and 2018, Zhu spent about CNY100 million to buy 14.4 million Yango shares, or nearly 0.4 percent of the total. He was appointed chairman in June 2017.

After the latest transfers, Taikang Life Insurance and insurance assets managed by Taikang Asset Management have less than 4 percent of Yango's shares outstanding. Their earlier combined stake has been reduced by 70 percent.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi