Jade Road Investments said Covid shutdowns and the impact on of the pandemic in Hong Kong and Japan affected its performance in 2021.
John Croft, chairman said: 'Unfortunately, the pandemic situation in China throughout 2021 worsened with major cities and provinces placed under lockdown measures, including cross-province and cross-border travel bans, as part of the government's zero-Covid strategy.
“Meanwhile, in Hong Kong (HKSAR), many restaurants were forced to close permanently in the face of multiple lockdowns. In Japan, tourism ground to a complete halt.
“In the face of these unprecedented headwinds, major impairments across the asset portfolio have unfortunately become unavoidable.”
Net asset value at the end of 2021 was US$68mln (2020: US$106mln) while there was a net loss of US$38.4mln (2020: Net profit US$1.6mln).
Since the year-end, Croft said Jade Road had partially disposed of its holding in Meize Energy Industries, which will generate US$ 1.2mln in cash and reduce Jade's residual holding to 6.3% of the Meize equity.
"Jade Road is set to pivot away from China and focus on the broader Asian SME subsector," added Croft, "which is showing greater resilience than larger companies in terms of recovery".