Asian Capital Resources Holdings (ACR) and its former company secretary Andrew James Chandler were today convicted of providing false or misleading information to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
ACR pleaded guilty to five counts and Chandler to two counts in a hearing today at the Eastern Magistracy. They were fined HK$100,000 and HK$10,000 respectively and ordered to pay the Securities and Futures Commission’s (SFC) investigation costs.
The SFC alleged that between October 2008 and October 2009, ACR issued five different announcements stating that Mr Qiu Yue, an executive director of ACR, held no interest in any shares of ACR or incorrectly stating the level of Qiu’s interests. These statements were false or misleading.
When Qiu was appointed as an executive director of ACR on 24 October 2008, he was taken to be interested in 84,045,413 shares in ACR, amounting to approximately 13% of the issued share capital of ACR, through Lucky Peace Limited (Lucky Peace), a company beneficially owned by Qiu.
ACR was aware of Qiu’s interest in these shares through Lucky Peace because ACR was involved in the agreement through which these shares were issued. Chandler signed the agreement as a witness on behalf of ACR.
It was therefore false or misleading for ACR to inform the market that Qiu has no interest or incorrectly stated the level of Qiu’s interests in ACR.
Both Lucky Peace and Qiu also failed to disclose their interests in ACR in their capacities as substantial shareholders and as a director of the company as required by the Securities & Futures Ordinance. They pleaded guilty to a total of five counts and were fined HK$4,000 and HK$6,000 respectively as well as ordered to pay the SFC’s investigation costs.
