Hanergy shrugs off precipitous fall in share price

The parent company of Hanergy Thin Film Power (Hanergy TF) has insisted the firm is in good financial condition despite its shares almost halving in value yesterday.

Trading in Hanergy shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange was suspended on Wednesday after they fell 47%, wiping some US$18 billion off the company’s value.

Reasons for the precipitous fall in Hanergy shares were unclear, but a Reuters report cited an unnamed source who said the company was being investigated by the Hong Kong securities regulator.

A Chinese language statement on Hanergy’s website did not address this report, instead insisting that the company was operating normally and had no outstanding debts.

It said the reported situation about the group’s shares being liquidated was untrue and that the group had not sold any of its 30.6 billion shares in Hanergy Thin Film. It said it had not been involved in any financial derivative trading using Hanergy TF shares.

The statement also addressed the fact that Hanergy chairman Li Hejun had failed to attend the company’s annual general meeting ahead of the fall in Hanergy TF’s stock.

The company said the chairman was attending an event in Beijing to mark the opening of a Hanergy show house.

Market analysts appeared to have been expecting a correction in Hanergy’s share price, which has risen steeply in the past year despite question marks over its reliance on sales to its parent company.

That correction appears to be having a knock-on effect, with Reuters reporting that shares in Goldin Financial, a firm appointed in February as a financial adviser to Hanergy, have fallen 60% today.