Jumia Technologies AG

On May 9, 2019, Citron Research reported that Jumia is the "most obvious fraud" the firm has ever seen in 18 years of publishing research. Citron further emphasized the company’s "material discrepancies" between the confidential investor presentation from October 2018 and what the company told the Securities and Exchange Commission, including: inflating active customer and active merchant numbers by 20% to 30%; and that 41% of orders were returned, not delivered or canceled.

On this news, shares of Jumia fell $6.22, or over 18%, to close at $26.89 on May 9, 2019, thereby injuring investors.

The complaint filed in this class action alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that the Company had materially overstated its active customers and active merchants; (2) that the Company’s representations about its orders, order cancellations, undelivered orders and returned orders lacked a sufficient factual basis and materially overstated the Company’s sales; (3) that the Company failed to sufficiently disclose related party transactions; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects, were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.