Hong Kong-listed conglomerate CITIC Pacific, which reported huge losses from wrong bets on foreign exchanges last year, announced a top management reshuffle on Wednesday, including the resignation of both the company's founding chairman Larry Yung Chi Kin and managing director Henry Fan Hung Ling.
Yung, 67, cited in his resignation letter the "great impact in society" of recent police investigation involving CITIC Pacific and its directors, the company said in a statement posted on the online disclosure platform of Hong Kong stock exchange.
"Faced with this reality, Mr. Yung believed that his resignation would be in the best interests of the company," the statement said.
Henry Fan, the 61-year-old managing director who founded the CITIC Pacific group with Yung in 1990, also resigned with immediate effect on Wednesday.
Chang Zhenming, 52, currently vice chairman and president of CITIC group, the mainland-based mother firm of CITIC Pacific, took over as CITIC Pacific chairman and managing director.
Trading in the Hong Kong-listed shares of CITIC Pacific, which was suspended since last Friday morning, will resume on Thursday.
Yung was born in the Chinese mainland and made his fortune after coming to Hong Kong in 1978. He was once the richest man in the Chinese mainland.
CITIC Pacific in October disclosed losses in excess of 15 billion HK dollars (1.9 billion U.S. dollars) from unauthorized hedging by senior financial managers against changes in the exchange rates of Australian dollar. Critics soon questioned whether the company made timely disclosure in accordance with regulatory rules.
Police searched the headquarters of the company in early April, about six months after the Securities and Futures Commission launched an official probe into CITIC Pacific disclosed the losses from wrong bets.
Share prices of CITIC Pacific has been extremely volatile since the losses was announced. It was trading at 9.47 HK dollars before the suspension last Friday.
(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2009)
