Huabao Suspends Trading After Falling on Short-Seller Report
Huabao - a Chinese flavours and fragrances company in Hong Kong - has suspended trading after falling on a short-seller report. To quote a Business Week article:
Huabao International Holdings Ltd. (336), a maker of flavors and fragrances used in cigarettes, suspended trading in Hong Kong after the stock plunged on a short-seller report that questioned its finances.
Huabao fell 8.1 percent to HK$3.98 at the close in Hong Kong yesterday after short seller Anonymous Analytics said the company “reports absurdly high margins, which industry sources say should not be possible.”
The company didn’t give a reason for the suspension. In a Hong Kong stock exchange filing late on April 24, Huabao said it wasn’t aware of any reasons for the changes in its share price and trading volume.
Readers of this blog should be familiar with the stock as I blogged about it here. I also blogged about the (now in excess of a) billion US dollars the CEO had cashed out and the derivative transactions that she had used to do so.
The suggestions in my blog post - and a few other things - were covered in the short-seller report.
John Hempton
Disclosure: We remain short this company - albeit in modest quantity.