China's Leshi says has $890 million of debts due in 2018

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese video-streaming firm Leshi Internet Information & Technology said it has 5.62 billion yuan ($890 million) of loans and liabilities due in 2018.

Leshi last week flagged that it expected a loss of 11.6 billion yuan for 2017 due to the ongoing financial crisis at its founder Jia Yueting’s LeEco conglomerate.

Leshi had said it had loans and financial liabilities totaling 9.29 billion yuan, while its largest shareholder Jia and related LeEco units owe it 7.5 billion yuan. LeEco had disputed that figure.

Leshi, which listed the amount of loans and liabilities due at the end of this year in a statement late on Friday, used to be the main listed unit of Jia’s LeEco.

But Leshi, controlled now by property developer Sunac China - its second-largest shareholder, is trying to distance itself from the LeEco brand.

LeEco was once China’s Netflix-to-Tesla contender but ran into a cash crunch since late 2016 after expanding too fast.