Trading in the shares of Chinese fishery company China Ocean Group Development Limited remains suspended after the firm’s auditor resigned in dramatic fashion.
On 3 October, 2022, Reanda Lau and Au Yeung CPA Limited tendered its resignation as China Ocean’s auditor and was replaced in its duties on the same day by Elite Partners CPA.
Trading in the company’s shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was suspended and the firm has yet to publish its audited annual results for 2022. Based in Hong Kong and Shenzen, China, China Ocean operates a distant-water fleet, mariculture, processing, and seafood trading operations, according to its website. It runs 57 trawlers fishing through rights-lease agreements with Cambodia and Mozambique.
A company statement issued to shareholders said auditor resigned due to concerns over “certain bonds, bank, and other borrowings” owed by the company and also reservations over advance payments made by the company to some suppliers and procedures being taken by lenders to recoup funds.
“As of 31 March, 2022, the group had litigations of claims from a shareholder and two bondholders in which the group was the defendant,” it said in a statement. “There are considerable outstanding audit works on advance payment to suppliers, including the inspection of all the necessary supporting documents, explanation, and arrang[ing] interviews with the relevant parties involved.”
China Ocean entered a joint venture in 2021 to open 30 stores across southern China to enable the firm to sell directly to consumers, rather than relying on wholesale margins.
In December 2020, China Ocean Group Development Co announced to shareholders that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Mercado Común Del Sur (Mercosur) to build a “pelagic fishery base” in Ecuador. But Mercosur’s press office at its headquarters in Uruguay told SeafoodSource that no such agreement has been signed.
Photo courtesy of China Ocean Group Development Limited
