By Goh Eng Yeow

The case of the DWINDLING STAKE

SINO-ENVIRONMENT Technology Group founder Sun Jiangrong has put the entire company in jeopardy as a result of excessive borrowing.

The waste recycler shocked investors with a belated disclosure last week that Mr Sun, also its chairman, had pledged his entire 56.3 per cent stake in the firm as collateral for a loan in August 2007.

That was 10 months before the company launched a $149 million bond issue in June last year. Back then, it gave bond-holders the option to get their money back should Mr Sun fail to keep control of more than half of the company's outstanding shares. This option now threatens to undermine the firm financially, as Mr Sun has lost control of the company. Bond-holders can now ask for their money back.

His stake had been whittled down from 56.3 per cent to 6.23 per cent as the lender - Stark Investments - took possession of the shares and force-sold them on the open market. This was after Mr Sun defaulted on an outstanding $65 million he still owed Stark which was to be repaid in February.

Traders were unnerved by the company's belated disclosure of the situation, following a query from the Singapore Exchange. The company explained that it had not been informed of the share pledge - when Mr Sun first pledged them to Stark and again when the bonds were issued.

Surely, if the board had been aware of Mr Sun's loan arrangement, it would have scrutinised the term-sheet of the bond issue more carefully before allowing the company to proceed, traders noted.

Its independent directors included former MP Goh Chee Wee, Dr Wong Chiang Yin and Mr Pan Jinquan. Former chief financial officer Tan Tar Wuei, who had just quit, has been appointed as a non-executive director.

Mr David Gerald, the president of the Securities Investors Association (Singapore), said it was puzzling that the board did not ask its chairman about his financing arrangements before it went ahead with the bond issue.

'The board owes shareholders an explanation,' he said.

But investors got few answers from Sino-Environment. In a reply last week to queries raised by bond-holders, it said Stark had 'insisted on a confidentiality agreement and objected to disclosure to the bond-holders'.

It also said that as of March 6, its cash balance stood at 300 million yuan (S$65 million), all earmarked for capital expenditure and working capital. But this fell far short of the $149 million needed to repay the bond-holders.

The case of the 'MISSING FUNDS'

INDEPENDENT directors at China Sun Bio-chem Technology have raised serious concerns over the management of the corn-starch producer.

They complained, in a nine-page announcement yesterday, of the obstacles faced by KPMG Advisory in getting to the bottom of accounting irregularities first highlighted by auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

They alleged that China Sun's executive chairman Sun Guiji even objected to the release of yesterday's announcement and had 'threatened to hold the independent directors fully responsible for any costs or expenses suffered and incurred' for releasing it without management consent.

China Sun has been suspended from trading since March 23, after PwC said that it could not complete its annual audit and was unable to establish the authenticity of the bank confirmations received on bank balances of 592 million yuan (S$127 million).

PwC added that it did not have sufficient audit evidence to confirm Mr Sun's explanation that the money had been used to buy 'corn raw materials'. It also had difficulties establishing the existence of the debtors which owed the company about 337 million yuan.

Yesterday, the announcement noted that independent director Lai Seng Kwoon had written to Mr Sun on May 1 asking for 'a full explanation on the whereabouts of the purchased corn or the cash of 592 million yuan'.

It also gave accounts of the problems allegedly encountered by KPMG at China Sun's Suzhou and Tongliao offices. It said KPMG could not access accounting records in the Suzhou office.

The auditors were told by staff that the records had been moved to the company's Shenyang office for auditing purposes.

There was also a mysterious power failure when the auditors tried to access four computers at the Suzhou finance office. Mr Sam Yeh, an assistant general manager of China Sun, attributed the electricity supply cut to ongoing refurbishment.

However, KPMG observed that one other computer in the room remained in working condition, and noted that this was 'an unusual phenomenon'.

In Tongliao, KPMG could not assess the records 'as the truck that was transporting the relevant accounting records back to Tongliao from the Shenyang office was stolen on April 1 when the driver was having his dinner'.

China Sun's independent directors also disclosed in the announcement the steps which they had taken to safeguard the company's finances.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.