Thursday 26 March 2009

China Sun asks for share suspension

It appoints KPMG to review finances after PwC says it can’t complete audit

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Guanyu said...

China Sun asks for share suspension

It appoints KPMG to review finances after PwC says it can’t complete audit

By CONRAD TAN
26 March 2009

China Sun Bio-chem Technology Group has asked for its shares to be suspended, after its auditor was unable to complete the audit of the company’s 2008 financial statements.

An announcement filed with the Singapore Exchange (SGX) last night by Teo Moh Gin, an independent director of China Sun, said that independent auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) had told the company that it could not verify the existence of bank and trade receivable balances worth a total of 929 million yuan (S$206 million) at end-2008, as recorded in the group’s books.

Trading in the shares of the China-based producer of corn starch has been halted since Monday, at the company’s own request.

According to the statement, after PwC told the company’s audit committee of its difficulties in mid-February, the committee then advised Sun Guiji, China Sun’s chairman and chief executive, and Herman Wong, its chief financial officer, to fully cooperate with PwC so that the audit could be completed.

On Feb 28, the company asked SGX for a time extension for the release of its 2008 financial results, which it said then would be released by end-March.

Despite continuing efforts by the audit committee and PwC, ‘the company only managed to render very limited cooperation and assistance to PwC in connection with the audit procedures to resolve the exceptions’, last night’s statement said.

On March 13, PwC wrote to China Sun to say it could not complete the audit.

The next day, the audit committee arranged a conference call with Mr. Sun, Mr. Wong and PwC, and again instructed both executives to cooperate with PwC to complete the audit within a week.

But last Saturday, PwC again told the board in a letter that it could not complete the audit.

On Sunday, at an urgent meeting in Beijing, China Sun’s board voted to appoint KPMG to review the company’s finances.

Mr. Teo, who is also a member of the audit committee, was appointed a non-executive vice-chairman.

He was tasked with ensuring the company cooperates fully to complete the audit of its finances.

Any payment, transfer or remittance by any member of the group of more than 5 million yuan must now be jointly approved by the board and CEO, last night’s statement said.