It just caught my surprise that Hang Fung Gold is on a string of negative news today:
First of all, Hang Fung Gold released an announcement last night (14 Oct) saying that:
Significant trade receivables in its wholesale business “may be difficult to recover”, and that “the amount of their inventory might be substantially less than previously reported.”
Deloitte is appointed as independent accountant to conduct investigations on the company’s assets and liabilities.
Creditors (led by HSBC) have formed a steering committee.
Secondly, probably due to the company announcement, Moody’s and S&P both downgraded Hang Fung Gold to ‘Ca’ and ‘D’ respectively.
Lastly, tonight’s TVB 11:30pm news said that:
Mitsubishi UFJ Bank has submitted a claim of HKD 24 million in the High Court of Hong Kong this past Monday.
Today the police has arrested five employees of Hang Fung Gold (the wife of the deceased Chairman Lam Sai Wing being one of the five arrested) for stealing gold bars that are worth HKD 179 million.
What was she thinking? After the death of her husband, she is now the chairman of the Company and basically she is just robbing her own company. Hasn’t she heard of the word “embezzlement” and its consequence?
From all these signs, I will not be surprised if some banks will call to liquidate Hang Fung Gold soon. Is the jewelry sector particularly hard for auditors to examine their books? With the fall of Peace Mark, this will be the second listed company in this industry that are in trouble.
October 16th, 2008 | Tags: 3D Gold, 870, Arrest, Deloitte, Downgrades, Hang Fung Gold, Lawsuit, Mitsubishi UFJ, Moody's, S&P, Tokyo | Category: 3D-gold, Companies | Comments (1)
