SINGAPORE - Shares of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding climbed on Monday morning (Nov 18) following a media report that the company's executive chairman Ren Yuanlin is "safe and healthy" and expected to return "before too long".

The counter surged as much as 10 per cent or 10 cents to hit $1.10 within the first hour of trading. It then eased slightly to $1.08 as at 10.58am, with some 59.3 million shares changing hands, making it one of the most actively traded securities by volume on the Singapore bourse.

Mr Ren Yuanlin has been on leave for more than three months to assist in a confidential probe in Beijing. His son and chief executive Ren Letian told The Business Times in an interview published on Monday that the case is "complicated", but the chairman's absence does not affect the daily running of the shipbuilder.

In August, Mr Ren Yuanlin was granted a leave of absence by the board to expedite the investigation. This came two weeks after global shipping news service TradeWinds reported that Liu Jianguo, described as a "veteran political patron of the shipbuilding industry" and closely connected to Yangzijiang, was being probed by Beijing's powerful anti-graft body for disciplinary violations.

Separately, last week, Yangzijiang posted a 10 per cent decline in its third-quarter profit to 702.3 million yuan (S$136.3 million) amid fewer orders.