Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd (漢能薄膜發電集團), the Chinese solar company whose shares have been suspended amid a probe by market regulators, said the firm’s founder and main shareholder Li Hejun (李河君) resigned as chairman and executive director in a boardroom shakeup designed to improve the way the company is governed.
Li had no disagreement with the board and is not quitting for reasons that need to be brought to the attention of regulators, Hanergy said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.
Yuan Yabin (袁亞彬), 48, is to replace him as chairman and executive director. He is not the deputy general director of the company’s parent, Hanergy Holding Group Ltd (漢能控股).
It has been almost exactly one year since Hanergy’s Hong Kong-listed shares were suspended after the stock collapsed in 30 minutes of trading, reducing the company’s market value by US$19 billion and prompting an investigation by stock market regulators. The plunge made Hanergy an emblem of the froth in China’s stock markets that had made Li the nation’s richest man.
Questions about Hanergy’s accounting policies and its dependence on its parent company for the majority of sales dogged Li since before the shares were suspended. He controls more than two-thirds of the stock of the listed subsidiary and remains in control of the parent company, Hanergy Holding.
Hanergy Thin Film has been communicating with Hong Kong’s securities regulator, although the company has not been told when the investigation will be concluded or the shares may resume trading, the parent company said.
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