Court-appointed liquidators for a garment manufacturer and retailer have sacked nearly half its Hong Kong workforce and shut 20 of its shops in the city as they seek a buyer for the company.
Nearly 200 U-Right International Holdings staff lost their jobs - about half from the back office, which will now be run by a core of 20 people, according to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the court-appointed provisional liquidator.
'Our goal now is to find a white knight. The company is not yet liquidated,' Edmund Yeung Lui-ming of Deloitte said. 'We are restructuring the company and are in talks with two or three potential buyers.'
The company originally had 500 workers and 95 shops in Hong Kong, and 516 mainland shops.
'We also closed about 20 outlets in Hong Kong which had been losing money for quite a long time,' Mr Yeung said. Each employed about four people.
The remaining shops across the city and on the mainland will operate as usual.
