CHINESE gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd is close to signing an agreement to sell Grindr LLC, the popular gay dating app it has owned since 2016, to a group of investors, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move comes after a US government panel asked Kunlun to divest Grindr. The panel, dubbed the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), was concerned that the personal information of millions of Americans, such as private messages and HIV status, was at risk of falling into the wrong hands.