British firm Martin Currie Ltd and its two wholly-owned subsidiaries are being sued by Nanning Sugar Manufacturing Co Ltd over a share-trading dispute, a statement filed to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange said yesterday.

The suit is China's first court case involving a qualified foreign institutional investor under the QFII scheme.

According to the statement, Martin Currie Investment Management Ltd and Martin Currie Inc, the two subsidiaries, bought 16.92 million shares, equivalent to 5.9 percent, of Nanning Sugar between August 23 and 30 in 2007.

From January 4 to 25 this year, the two subsidiaries sold 14.53 million shares, or 5.07 percent of the total, and put the gains into their own pockets ?? which was allegedly in violation of China's security law.

Under the security law, any earnings from the sales of a company's shares exceeding 5 percent of its total equity within six months belong to the company - in this case, the gains should have been given to Nanning Sugar.

A court in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has agreed to hear the lawsuit.

(Shanghai Daily June 17, 2008)