Universal Travel Group

UTA is a NYSE listed, Chinese based 'online' travel company. A recent blog article by "Bronte Capital" alleges fraud, highlighting a bogus website, strange ticket collection practices, low staffing costs and other financial oddities. The article is obviously written by a short working (successfully) his book with the stock dropping 25% at one stage.

My initial reaction is that this is another Chinese company fraud. The article as written seems be be by someone with little China experience who is heavily dependent on Chinese contacts for his scuttlebut research and smells heavily of a short starting from a preconceived position. How many of the factors can be attributed to the company's amateurism instead of evil is unanswered, however with the reputation of Chinese companies, investors will have a hair trigger.

This is another in the trend of shorts issuing fraud reports on the myriad of suspicious Chinese companies. Orient Paper was another one of these that may or may not have any foundation but have contributed well to the short's profits.