Two hundred and twenty companies listed on the Shanghai Stock
Exchange had recovered 21.8 billion yuan (US$2.79 billion) of debt
owed by their controlling shareholders by February 16, the
China Securities Journal reported Saturday.
Thirteen companies are still waiting to retrieve misappropriated
funds totaling 3.17 billion yuan, but only a few of them will be
able to do that in the short term, said the report.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country's
securities market watchdog, recently launched an investigation in
conjunction with the Shanghai bourse into seven of the 13 companies
and vowed to hand over criminal suspects to the police.
In June 2006, China's legislative body adopted an amendment to
the criminal code that makes misappropriation of a listed company's
funds by controlling shareholders a crime.
To prevent controlling shareholders from embezzling funds,
listed companies should strengthen internal control over fund usage
and use the law to punish embezzlers, said sources with the
Shanghai bourse.
The State Council initiated the fund recovery campaign in
November 2005 in a bid to improve the quality of the country's
1,400 listed companies, safeguard the interests of shareholders and
ensure the healthy development of the stock market.
The misappropriation of large sums by controlling shareholders
has been a major problem affecting China's burgeoning stock
market.
(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2007)