KE Holdings Inc. Sponsored ADR Class A (BEKE) Risk Analysis

If the VIEs or their shareholders fail to perform their respective obligations under the contractual arrangements, we may have to incur substantial costs and expend additional resources to enforce such arrangements. We may also have to rely on legal remedies under PRC law, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief, and contractual remedies, which we cannot assure you will be sufficient or effective under PRC law. For example, if the shareholders of the VIEs were to refuse to transfer their equity interests in the VIEs to us or our designee when we exercise the purchase option pursuant to these contractual arrangements, or if they were otherwise to act in bad faith toward us, then we may have to take legal actions to compel them to perform their contractual obligations. All the agreements under our contractual arrangements are governed by PRC law and provide for the resolution of disputes through arbitration in China. Accordingly, these contracts would be interpreted in accordance with PRC law and any disputes would be resolved in accordance with PRC legal procedures. As a result, uncertainties in the PRC legal system could limit our ability to enforce these contractual arrangements. See "-Risks Related to Doing Business in China-Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system could materially and adversely affect us." Meanwhile, there are very few precedents and little formal guidance as to how contractual arrangements in the context of a consolidated variable interest entity should be interpreted or enforced under PRC law. There remain significant uncertainties regarding the ultimate outcome of such arbitration if legal action becomes necessary. In addition, under PRC law, rulings by arbitrators are final, parties cannot appeal the arbitration results in courts, and if the losing parties fail to carry out the arbitration awards within a prescribed time limit, the prevailing parties may only enforce the arbitration awards in PRC courts through arbitration award recognition proceedings, which would require additional expenses and delay. In the event we are unable to enforce these contractual arrangements, or if we suffer significant delay or other obstacles in the process of enforcing these contractual arrangements, we may not be able to exert effective control over the VIEs, and our ability to conduct the business we currently conduct through the contractual arrangements may be negatively affected.

We have relied and expect to continue to rely on contractual arrangements with the VIEs and their shareholders to conduct a portion of our operations in China, mainly value-added telecommunication services and certain financial services. These contractual arrangements, however, may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing us with control over the VIEs. For example, the VIEs and their shareholders could breach their contractual arrangements with us by, among other things, failing to conduct the operations of the VIEs in an acceptable manner or taking other actions that are detrimental to our interests. If we had direct ownership of the VIEs in China, we would be able to exercise our rights as a shareholder to effect changes in the board of directors of the VIEs, which in turn could implement changes, subject to any applicable fiduciary obligations, at the management and operational level. However, under the current contractual arrangements, we rely on the performance by the VIEs and their shareholders of their obligations under the contracts to exercise control over the VIEs. If any dispute relating to these contracts remains unresolved, we will have to enforce our rights under these contracts through the operations of PRC law and arbitration, litigation and other legal proceedings and therefore will be subject to uncertainties in the PRC legal system. See "-Any failure by the VIEs or their shareholders to perform their obligations under our contractual arrangements with them would have a material and adverse effect on part of our business."

The shareholders of the VIEs may have actual or potential conflicts of interest with us. These shareholders may breach, or cause the VIEs to breach, or refuse to renew, the existing contractual arrangements we have with them and the VIEs, which would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to effectively control the VIEs and receive economic benefits from them. For example, the shareholders may be able to cause our agreements with the VIEs to be performed in a manner adverse to us by, among other things, failing to remit payments due under the contractual arrangements to us on a timely basis. We cannot assure you that when conflicts of interest arise any or all of these shareholders will act in the best interests of our company or such conflicts will be resolved in our favor. We may invoke the right under the equity pledge agreements with the shareholders of the VIEs to enforce the equity pledge in the case of any shareholder's breach of the contractual arrangements. For individuals who are also our directors and officers, we rely on them to abide by the laws of the Cayman Islands, which provide that directors and officers owe a fiduciary duty to the company that requires them to act in good faith and in what they believe to be the best interests of the company and not to use their position for personal gains. The shareholders of the VIEs have executed powers of attorney to appoint one of our WFOEs or a person designated by the respective WFOE to vote on their behalf and exercise voting rights as shareholders of the VIEs. If we cannot resolve any conflict of interest or dispute between us and the shareholders of the VIEs with these contractual arrangements, we would have to rely on legal proceedings, which could result in disruption of part of our business and subject us to substantial uncertainty as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings. The shareholders of the VIEs may be involved in personal disputes with third parties or other incidents that may have an adverse effect on their respective equity interests in the VIEs and the validity or enforceability of our contractual arrangements with the VIEs and their shareholders. For example, in the event that any of the shareholders of the VIEs divorces his or her spouse, the spouse may claim that the equity interest of the VIEs held by such shareholder is part of their community property and should be divided between such shareholder and the spouse. If such claim is supported by the court, the relevant equity interest may be obtained by the shareholder's spouse or another third party who is not subject to obligations under our contractual arrangements, which could result in a loss of the effective control over the VIEs by us. Similarly, if any of the equity interests of the VIEs is inherited by a third party with whom the current contractual arrangements are not binding, we could lose our control over the VIEs or have to maintain such control by incurring unpredictable costs, which could cause significant disruption to part of our business and operations and harm our financial condition and results of operations.

The trading price of our ADSs has been volatile since our ADSs started to trade on the New York Stock Exchange on August 13, 2020. The trading price of our ADSs could fluctuate widely due to factors beyond our control. This may happen because of broad market and industry factors, including the performance and fluctuation of the market prices of other companies with business operations located mainly in China that have listed their securities in the United States. In addition to market and industry factors, the price and trading volume for the ADSs may be highly volatile for factors specific to our own operations, including the following: - variations in our revenues, earnings, or cash flow;- fluctuations in operating metrics;- announcements of new investments, acquisitions, strategic partnerships or joint ventures by us or our competitors;- announcements of new services and expansions by us or our competitors;- changes in financial estimates by securities analysts;- detrimental negative publicity about us, our competitors or our industry;- additions or departures of key personnel;- release of lock-up or other transfer restrictions on our outstanding equity securities or sales of additional equity securities;- regulatory developments affecting us or our industry; and - potential litigation or regulatory investigations. Any of these factors may result in large and sudden changes in the volume and price at which the ADSs will trade. Furthermore, the stock market in general experiences price and volume fluctuations that are often unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of companies like us. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our ADSs. Volatility or a lack of positive performance in our ADS price may also adversely affect our ability to retain key employees, most of whom have been granted equity incentives. In the past, shareholders of public companies have often brought securities class action suits against companies following periods of instability in the market price of their securities. Based on public records, our company and certain of our directors and officers were named as defendants in a putative securities class action filed in the United States. See "Item 8. Financial Information-A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information-Legal Proceedings" for more information. When and if we are involved in a class action suit, it could divert a significant amount of our management's attention and other resources from our business and operations and require us to incur significant expenses to defend the suit, which could harm our results of operations. Any such class action suit, whether successful or not, could harm our reputation and restrict our ability to raise capital in the future. In addition, if a claim is successfully made against us, we may be required to pay significant damages, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We adopted a Pre-IPO Share Option Scheme in 2018, or the 2018 Share Option Plan, a 2020 Global Share Incentive Plan, or the 2020 Share Incentive Plan, to provide additional incentives to employees, directors and consultants. The maximum aggregate number of ordinary shares which may be issued under the 2018 Share Option Plan is 350,225,435. The maximum aggregate number of ordinary shares which may be issued under the 2020 Share Incentive Plan is initially 80,000,000, subject to annual increase. See "Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees-B. Compensation-Share Incentive Plans." We have granted share-based awards and recorded RMB2,523 million, RMB2,253 million and RMB1,538 million (US$241 million) in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively, in share-based compensation expenses in relation to such share-based award grants. We also expect to continue to grant awards under our share incentive plan, which we believe is of significant importance to our ability to attract and retain key personnel and employees. As a result, our expenses associated with share-based compensation may increase, which may have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Our authorized and issued ordinary shares are divided into Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. In respect of matters requiring the votes of shareholders, holders of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares vote together as a single class except as may otherwise be required by law, and holders of Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote per share while holders of Class B ordinary shares are entitled to ten votes per share. Each Class B ordinary share is convertible into one Class A ordinary share at any time by the holder thereof, while Class A ordinary shares are not convertible into Class B ordinary shares under any circumstances. Upon any transfer of Class B ordinary shares by a holder thereof to any person or entity that is not Co-Founder or Co-Founder Affiliate as defined in our currently effective memorandum and articles of association, such Class B ordinary shares shall be automatically and immediately converted into an equal number of Class A ordinary shares. As of the date of this annual report, holders of our Class B ordinary shares hold 885,301,280 Class B ordinary shares, representing 76.7% of the aggregate voting power of our total issued and outstanding ordinary shares due to the disparate voting powers associated with our dual-class voting structure. See "Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees-E. Share Ownership." Holders of our Class B ordinary shares or their proxy have considerable influence over matters requiring shareholder approval, such as electing directors and approving material mergers, acquisitions, or other business combination transactions. This concentration of ownership may discourage, delay, or prevent a change of control of our company, which could have the effect of depriving our other shareholders of the opportunity to receive a premium for their shares as part of a sale of our company and may reduce the price of our ADSs. This concentrated control will limit your ability to influence corporate matters and could discourage others from pursuing any potential merger, takeover, or other change of control transactions that holders of Class A ordinary shares and ADSs may view as beneficial.

We cannot predict whether our dual-class share structure with different voting rights will result in a lower or more volatile market price of the ADSs, in adverse publicity, or other adverse consequences. Certain index providers have announced restrictions on including companies with multi-class share structures in certain of their indices. For example, S&P Dow Jones and FTSE Russell have changed their eligibility criteria for inclusion of shares of public companies on certain indices, including the S&P 500, to exclude companies with multiple classes of shares and companies whose public shareholders hold no more than 5% of total voting power from being added to such indices. As a result, our dual-class voting structure may prevent the inclusion of the ADSs representing our Class A ordinary shares in such indices, which could adversely affect the trading price and liquidity of the ADSs representing our Class A ordinary shares. In addition, several shareholder advisory firms have announced their opposition to the use of multiple class structure and our dual-class structure may cause shareholder advisory firms to publish negative commentary about our corporate governance, in which case the market price and liquidity of the ADSs could be adversely affected.

The trading market for the ADSs will be influenced by research or reports that industry or securities analysts publish about our business. If one or more analysts who cover us downgrade the ADSs, the market price for the ADSs would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which, in turn, could cause the market price or trading volume for the ADSs to decline.

Holders of ADSs do not have the same rights as our registered shareholders. As a holder of ADSs, you will not have any direct right to attend general meetings of our shareholders or to cast any votes at such meetings. You will only be able to exercise the voting rights attached to the Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs indirectly by giving voting instructions to the depositary in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Where any matter is to be put to a vote at a general meeting, then upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will try, as far as is practicable, to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs in accordance with your instructions. You will not be able to directly exercise your right to vote with respect to the underlying Class A ordinary shares unless you cancel and withdraw the shares and become the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date for the general meeting. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient advance notice of the meeting to withdraw the Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs and become the registered holder of such shares to allow you to attend the general meeting and to vote directly with respect to any specific matter or resolution to be considered and voted upon at the general meeting. In addition, under our currently effective memorandum and articles of association, for the purposes of determining those shareholders who are entitled to attend and vote at any general meeting, our directors may close our register of members and/or fix in advance a record date for such meeting, and such closure of our register of members or the setting of such a record date may prevent you from withdrawing the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs and from becoming the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date, so that you would not be able to attend the general meeting or to vote directly. Where any matter is to be put to a vote at a general meeting, upon our instruction the depositary will notify you of the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. We cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for their manner of carrying out your voting instructions. This means that you may not be able to exercise your right to direct how the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs are voted and you may have no legal remedy if the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs are not voted as you requested. In addition, in your capacity as an ADS holder, you will not be able to call a shareholders' meeting. Under the deposit agreement, if no voting instruction from you is received, the depositary may give us a discretionary proxy to vote the Class A ordinary shares underlying the ADSs at shareholders' meetings if we have timely provided the depositary with notice of meeting and related voting materials and (i) we have instructed the depositary that we wish a discretionary proxy to be given, (ii) we have informed the depositary that there is no substantial opposition as to a matter to be voted on at the meeting, and (iii) a matter to be voted on at the meeting would not have a material adverse impact on shareholders. The effect of this discretionary proxy is that you cannot prevent our Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs from being voted, except under the circumstances described above. This may adversely affect your interests and make it more difficult for ADS holders to influence the management of our company. Holders of our Class A ordinary shares are not subject to this discretionary proxy.

We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. Our corporate affairs are governed by our currently effective memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against our directors, actions by our minority shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from the common law of England, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding, on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedents in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities laws than the United States. Some U.S. states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law than the Cayman Islands. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have the standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in a federal court of the United States. Shareholders of Cayman Islands exempted companies like us have no general rights under Cayman Islands law to inspect corporate records (except for our memorandum and articles of association and our register of mortgages and charges) or to obtain copies of lists of shareholders of these companies. Our directors have discretion under our currently effective memorandum and articles of association to determine whether or not, and under what conditions, our corporate records may be inspected by our shareholders, but are not obliged to make them available to our shareholders. This may make it more difficult for you to obtain the information needed to establish any facts necessary for a shareholder motion or to solicit proxies from other shareholders in connection with a proxy contest. As a result of all of the above, our public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of our board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a company incorporated in the United States. For a discussion of significant differences between the provisions of the Companies Act of the Cayman Islands and the laws applicable to companies incorporated in the United States and their shareholders, see "Item 10. Additional Information-B. Memorandum and Articles of Association -Differences in Corporate Law."

We are currently a "controlled company" as defined under the New York Stock Exchange's corporate governance rules because Baihui Partners L.P. beneficially owns more than 50% of our total voting power through the voting proxy arrangements with Propitious Global Holdings Limited. For so long as we remain a controlled company under that definition, we are permitted to elect to rely, and may rely, on certain exemptions from corporate governance rules, including an exemption from the rule that a majority of our board of directors must be independent directors or that we have to establish a nominating committee composed entirely of independent directors. As a result, you will not have the same protection afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to these corporate governance requirements.

As a Cayman Islands company listed on the NYSE, we are subject to the NYSE listing standards, which require listed companies to have, among other things, a majority of their board members to be independent and independent director oversight of executive compensation and nomination of directors. However, NYSE rules permit a foreign private issuer like us to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, which is our home country, may differ significantly from the NYSE listing standards. We are permitted to elect to rely on home country practice to be exempted from the corporate governance requirements. If we choose to follow home country practice in the future, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they would otherwise enjoy if we complied fully with the NYSE listing standards.