LeEco boss asks for time, pledges to pay back debts

Jia Yueting, writing in a post on his public WeChat account, apologised for causing worry, pledged to pay back LeEco’s debts and to stick to its ambitious electric vehicle project.

Assets linked to tech giant LeEco have been frozen in a dispute with a creditor. (Reuters file photo)

The founder of China's struggling tech group LeEco, Jia Yueting, on Thursday pledged to take full responsibility for the company's debt troubles amid a deepening financial crisis and after some of the company's assets were frozen.

Jia, writing in a post on his public WeChat account, apologised for causing worry, pledged to pay back LeEco's debts and to stick to its ambitious electric vehicle project.

"Please give LeEco some time, please give LeEco car some time, we will pay back creditors, suppliers and any other debts," Jia wrote.

Concerns about Jia's position at LeEco were raised after Chinese newspapers reported this week that he was no longer LeEco's legal representative. Additionally, earlier this week $182 million of assets owned by Jia or the firm were frozen by a court in Shanghai.

The online record of China's national enterprise credit information publicity system does show that in June LeEco Holdings's legal representative changed from Jia to another company executive Wu Meng.

Jia pointed out in the WeChat post that he still has an important role at LeEco.

"I am still LeEco's executive director and largest shareholder, resigning from listed company CEO job and many other important roles is all aimed at making FF91 go to production and hit the market as soon as possible," Jia said, referring to LeEco's luxury electric car concept under Faraday Future in the US.

While many analysts said LeEco's expensive ambition in electric vehicles caused the biggest financial problem for the Netflix-to-Telsa-like conglomerate, Jia was emphatic in the post that LeEco remains committed to its car strategy, with its "dream to revolutionise the auto industry" remaining "undefeatible".