Sharks Come Out in China Stock Crisis 信任危机冲击在美上市中资股

By newsdoug on July 26, 2011

The accounting confidence crisis continues to take its toll on New York-listed China firms, with some mixed signs coming from the struggling solar sector and a very “shark-like” announcement from a US law firm looking to take advantage of the situation. The China Daily reports the crisis has already claimed Longtop Financial, ShengdaTech and China MediaExpress as victims, all of which have been delisted (English article), and last week two larger firms, AutoChina International (Nasdaq: AUTC) and CDC Software (Nasdaq: CDCS), said they were out of compliance with listing rules for failing to file annual reports on time — a first step toward potential de-listing. Now a US law firm named Blank Rome has stepped in by generously offering to provide services to some of the more troubled firms, many of which are likely to face shareholder lawsuits due to plunging share prices on investor concerns about shady accounting. (company announcement) Of course, many of the upcoming lawsuits will probably go nowhere, as the firms will quietly de-list and retreat to China where they will be out of reach of the US legal system. Meantiime, there’s another potentially troubling sign from the struggling solar sector, which may be set for its own accounting crisis due to questionable sales, with Canadian Solar’s (Nasdaq: CSIQ) announcement that it’s replacing its CFO. (company announcement) That announcement follows recent resignations of audit committee chairs at LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) and Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL), (previous post) though one of my sources tells me Canadian Solar’s resignation may be unrelated to accounting issues. Lastly, there’s a small piece of good news in the alternate energy sector from Ming Yang, which says it’s joined a group developing a relatively sizable 48-megawatt wind power project in south China’s Guangdong province. (company announcement) While announcements like this are encouraging and show China is stepping up to help its struggling alternate energy equipment makers, it could end up being too little too late if the sector’s rapid downward spiral doesn’t end soon.

Bottom line: The accounting confidence crisis for US-listed Chinese stocks is still playing out, and will claim more victims, potentially including some alternate energy firms, before the clean-up ends.

会计操作信任危机继续冲击在美国上市的中资股，而近期走势挣扎的太阳能板块释放出好坏参半的讯号。《中国日报》报导称，融通金融、盛大科技和中国高速频道，已沦为这场信任危机的牺牲品，均已遭摘牌或停牌。此外就在上周，汽车中国国际<AUTC.O>和中华网软件<CDCS.O>称违反了上市公司规章，未及时申报年度报告，而这或许成为走向摘牌的第一步。现在，有家名为Blank Rome的美国律所提出向一些陷入窘境的中资企业提供服务，这其中许多中资企业因会计操作疑虑导致股价重挫，可能遭股东起诉。当然，许多的官司可能最後无果而终，相关公司将悄然摘牌，退回到中国，美国司法制度可能也就鞭长莫及了。与此同时，太阳能板块传递出一些令人忧心的讯号，该领域或许也迎来一场会计信任危机。Canadian Solar<CSIQ.O>财务长近日辞职，而此前赛维太阳能<LDK.N>、天合光能<TSL.N>审计委员会主席也已辞职。不过有消息人士告诉我，Canadian Solar财务长辞职可能与会计操作无关。不过替代能源行业也有一些好消息，譬如明阳风电加入了广东一48百万瓦风电项目。虽然这类消息令人兴奋，表明中国正加大扶持替代能源设备制造商，但如果该领域快速下行的趋势不赶快结束，政府扶持可能也收效不大。

一句话：美国上市中资股面临的会计操作信任危机仍在继续，可能会有更多的中国企业中招，其中可能包括一些替代能源企业。