https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/202...dive-in-moments
- Chinese Cement Maker Stock plunges 99% within minutes
- Wiping out almost $1.8 billion in market capitalization.
- The stock was 70% owned by a single controlling shareholder and their spouse!
A Chinese cement producer was in the spotlight after it suspended stock trading Wednesday, following a selloff that nearly wiped out all its market value in the final 15 minutes of the previous session.

HONG KONG, April 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The last thing Hong Kong’s struggling stock market needs is for the shares of a $1.9 billion listed company to plunge 99% in 15 minutes. That's the fate that befell China Tianrui Group Cement (1252.HK), opens new tab as trading drew to a close on Tuesday. At present outsiders can only guess at what caused the problem.
Tianrui is hardly an unknown company. U.S. private equity powerhouse KKR chose it for its first mainland China investment in 2007, before helping to take it public four years later. And the company has supplied cement for major infrastructure ventures such as the South–North Water Transfer Project. Chinese media often describes its chair, Li Liufa, who along with his wife owns about 69% in Tianrui, as “the richest man in Henan province”.
Yet the company has been bulldozed by the problems in the country's beleaguered property sector. Last week it reported a 634 million yuan ($45.8 million) net loss for 2023, compared with a net profit of 449 million yuan a year earlier. In the past few years, Li has pledged parts of his stake in Tianrui for loans to support his company’s operation.
That has prompted speculation among financiers in Hong Kong that Li may have been subject to a margin call. It has happened before. Jianyuan International Group, a homebuilder that has since defaulted, sank as much as 89% in one session in January 2019 on what turned out to be a margin call on shares its chairman pledged as loan collateral.
Trouble is, substantial shareholders don’t need to disclose whether they have borrowed against their stock unless it's related to an issuer's financing.
Tianrui, for example, said in a January filing that Yu Kuo, the vehicle that holds Li's shares, pledged 97 million shares - just under 5%, opens new tab of its holdings - to secure a 12-month loan for the group. On the face of it, though, that seems too small to trigger such a massive price drop.
For now, trading in Tianrui shares is suspended pending an announcement on "inside information". Perhaps that will fill in all the gaps about why the company's market value now stands at just $18 million. It'd be better though, if Hong Kong stock market watchdogs insisted on far more transparency before there's a crash.
CONTEXT
The stock price of China Tianrui Group Cement plunged 99% in 15 minutes before Hong Kong’s stock market closed on April 9, slashing the Henan-based cement maker’s market value to only HK$141 million from HK$14.6 billion ($1.9 billion).
Hong Kong regulators allow substantial shareholders in listed firms to borrow against stock and not disclose their pledged position.

This post has been edited by likefunyouare: Apr 10 2024, 07:00 PM
Apr 10 2024, 06:43 PM, updated 2y ago
Quote


0.0195sec
0.85
5 queries
GZIP Disabled