Yangzijiang shares fall on CEO probe report

Shares in Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) tumbled 11 per cent after a report that its chief executive had been reported to Chinese authorities for alleged illegal activities.

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Yangzijiang shares fall on CEO probe report

Jonathan Kwok
31 May 2014

Shares in Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) tumbled 11 per cent after a report that its chief executive had been reported to Chinese authorities for alleged illegal activities.

The stock sank 12 cents or 10.6 per cent to $1.01 as 86.97 million shares were traded, making it the day’s second most active stock.

The slide also took the stock to its lowest level since last September.

The counter was trading close to Thursday’s close until 3pm, when traders started circulating a report by SinoShip News, a trade media agency focusing on the maritime industry in China.

The report said that Tianjin Good Hand Railway (Tianjin Guoheng), a listed railway company in China, made an announcement to the stock exchange there that it had reported several illegal activities involving Mr Ren Yuanlin to the authorities.

Mr Ren is chairman, chief executive and founder of Yangzijiang. He is also the largest shareholder, with 26 per cent of the company via his investment company, Newyard Worldwide Holdings.

Mr Ren bought 12.11 per cent of Tianjin Guoheng in January this year through one of his controlling companies and became its largest shareholder, SinoShip News said.

But Tianjin Guoheng accused him of several illegal activities including insider trading, misrepresentation and the infringement of the independent operations of a listed company, the report claimed.

It added that the authorities have suspended the trading of Tianjin Guoheng’s stock and are investigating the case.

Yangzijiang’s shares fell after investors learnt of the SinoShip News story which had actually been published on Tuesday.

CIMB said in a note to clients that it had spoken to Yangzijiang’s chief financial officer, “who is not very alarmed and said that the chairman has a lot of investments in China on a personal basis”, and felt that this was still under probe and should not affect Yangzijiang.

The chief financial officer also “doesn’t think it is ‘that’ serious”, that Mr Ren will be charged and reprimanded, the CIMB note added.

“We believe there should not be any impact to Yangzijiang’s operations but (are) unsure if any of the investments in structured products have similar issues. But for now, none (have been) reported.”

Yangzijiang was queried yesterday by the Singapore Exchange on the trading activity in its shares but had not responded by 9pm last night.

A spokesman for the company said it would reply to the SGX query accordingly.

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