July 2 (NBD) -- Kitchen appliance manufacturer Vatti Corporation Limited ("Vatti", 002035.SZ), an official partner of the French national team, is garnering increasing attention as the 2018 FIFA World Cup moves into quarter finals (QF). 

However, France's advance into the knockout match last weekend didn't seem to reverse fortune of Vatti. The kitchenware maker, which bet heavy on the French team to win the championship, saw its stock price fall by the daily limit Monday.  

A report by Beijing Morning Post says the Second People's Court of Zhongshan, Guangdong province made a decision last Friday to close down a company responsible for the sale of Vatti's kitchen appliance in Beijing and Tianjin, of which the general manager has disappeared due to the inability to pay off the debt of up to 100 million yuan (15.1 million U.S. dollars). 

According to an informed source, the sales company is Vatti's second largest distributor across China, and its person-in-charge has been missing for more than 10 days. The blind expansion over the past several years yielded nothing but a pile-up of inventories and mounting capital pressure on the company. 

At the same time, the recent marketing campaign launched by Vatti along with the kickoff of the 2018 FIFA World Cup has also been questioned by investors. Under Vatti's marketing scheme, the company will refund the full cost of packaged "World Cup Champion" appliances bought between June 1 and June 30 if the French team makes its way to the World Cup championship.  

Given the prices of appliance packages offered, Vatti would face a massive refund if France indeed clinched the victory. In response, Wang Zhaozhao, representative for securities affairs at Vatti, admitted that the company would absolutely pay a lot of money if France took the crown, but it is within the company's annual marketing budget and won't exert significant influence on the business performance.  

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn