May 25 (NBD) -- A shareholder of Qudian (NYSE:QD), a leading provider of online small consumer, announced the plan to reduce its stake of Qudian in due course.

The internet company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd (300418.SZ) made the announcement Wednesday, saying that the decision is aimed to increase the company's asset liquidity and utilization efficiency so as to protect itself from possible investment risks in the securities market.

This is not the first time that Kunlun Tech has cut back on stocks it held in Qudian. Kunlun Tech had sold part of Qudian shares for a total of 345 million yuan (54.0 million U.S. dollars), according to the company's announcement made in October last year.

Qudian is now facing not only stock reduction by its shareholder, but also management shake-up internally. According to the company's financial results for the first quarter of 2018, two board directors of Qudian, Li Shilei and Caoyi, had announced their resignation.

The financial results also show that Qudian's total revenue reached around 1.717 billion (268.8 million U.S. dollars) in the January-March period, representing an increase of 105.6 percent from a year ago, while the net income fell 32 percent year on year to 316 million yuan (49.5 million U.S. dollars).

It's noteworthy that during the first three months of 2018, the total amount of transactions of the online loaner reached 15.3 billion yuan (2.4 billion U.S. dollars), down 8.1 percent year on year, and the number of active borrowers also saw a year-over-year decline of 13.9 percent to 4.1 million.

Qudian founder and CEO Luo Min noted after the policy adjustment at the end of 2017, China's consumption loan market had experienced industrial contraction and Qudian down-regulated the transaction amount accordingly. The company aimed to control risks and optimize credit services for high-quality clients through contemporarily tightening the credit standards, added Luo.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn