Vibrant Group
A motor vehicle carrying certain accounting records of a company subsidiary caught fire near a coal mine in China on Aug 9, logistics firm Vibrant Group said.
The fire in in Fengjie, Chongqing, took place about a month after the group announced its auditors had found accounting irregularities in units of its subsidiary Blackgold International Holdings, which Vibrant acquired a year ago.
Blackgold is a coal producer listed in Australia. It has reported the fire to the police, on suspicion it could be a deliberate act to destroy records. Investigations are ongoing and the extent of damage to the records is pending the outcome of the probe, Vibrant said in a statement on Wednesday.
The vehicle was taking the records of a Blackgold unit, Chongqing Heijin Industrial, to Vibrant's Chongqing office when it caught fire.
Meanwhile, computers used by the Heijin group and remaining accounting records have been moved to Vibrant's Chongqing office.
The coal trading operations of the Heijin group have been suspended since July 20 pending the outcome of a special audit. Vibrant said it will ascertain the effects of the fire on the special audit and the audit of the group's consolidated financial statements for the year ended April 30.
Vibrant shares yesterday fell 1.2 cents or 6.6 per cent to 17 cents.
City Developments
City Developments Ltd (CDL) has made the first purchases on the open market in its inaugural share buyback exercise.
It picked up 300,000 shares, or 0.033 per cent of its issued share capital, at an average price of $9.485 a share yesterday, paying more than $2.85 million in total.
The price was a discount of 14.8 per cent to the net asset value of $11.13 a share as at June 30, CDL noted in an after-market announcement on the Singapore Exchange website. "There is deep value in our shares and we have confidence in CDL's strong fundamentals and future growth potential. We have repositioned our business for the next lap, with a focus on growth, enhancement and transformation," said group chief executive Sherman Kwek said in a statement. "Our robust balance sheet enables us to initiate our share buyback exercise to enhance returns for shareholders. We will continue to seek investments for CDL, capitalising on both internal and external opportunities."
The counter yesterday closed down by one cent to $9.54. CDL shares have lost 23.6 per cent so far this year.
