Prominent Hong Kong corporate activist David Webb has called on the city’s Securities and Futures Commission to investigate statements to shareholders by one of China’s biggest retailers, Gome Electrical Appliances, that he alleges were misleading.
The statements relate to the impact on the company of the arrest of its billionaire founder Huang Guangyu, who was subsequently jailed for 14 years for bribery and insider trading in a corporate scandal that has riveted Hong Kong. Mr Webb said he had sent a report published by China research firm GaveKal Dragonomics that featured an interview with Gome’s chairman, Chen Xiao, and Gome’s director of corporate development, Gao Qun, to the SFC.
In the interview, by Matthew Forney, Mr Chen is asked about differences between public statements by Gome shortly after Mr Huang was arrested in November 2008 and the company’s statement in August this year.