You know those business meetings where top executives go over the year’s events? Turns out they’re quite important, as China’s richest man learnt yesterday.
The Hong Kong-listed stock price of solar panel company Hanergy Thin Film Power Group went down by almost a half on Wednesday morning after the chairman and largest shareholder, Li Hejun, failed to attend the annual general meeting, opting instead to go to the opening of a new clean energy centre in Beijing.
The price per share of Hanergy was cut by 47 percent from HKD7.35 to HKD3.46. As a result, some HKD144 billion was wiped out from the company’s market cap.
Not exactly chump change, even for this guy.
Hanergy released a statement that said the company has suspended trading “pending release of an announcement containing inside information”.
However, some in the industry believe Hanergy’s market valuation has long been unrealistically high.
Castor Pang, head of research at Core Pacific-Yamaichi International, told AFP that prices are still too high, even after the drop.
“They are a manufacturing company, it’s not a high-tech stock. The price is much higher than an average industrial stock,” he added.
According to Reuters, Hong Kong’s market watchdog is investigating Hanergy –which saw its stock price rise six-fold in the past year – for market manipulation.
In February, Li took over the reins from Alibaba’s Jack Ma to become the richest man in China.
Graphics via Pixabay
