UPDATE - SFC confirms Hanergy Thin Film investigation

Hours after the chairman of Hanergy Thin Film Power Group (HKG:0566) denied media reports of a regulatory probe, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) unveiled that an investigation “has been active and is continuing”.

The regulator made the statement on Thursday, due to the huge interest attracted by Li Hejun’s television interview with Xinhua News Agency. The Hong Kong-based company's chairman used it as an opportunity to rebuff a Reuters report from May 20 that his company is being investigated for market manipulation, stressing he would have been aware of such a probe.

SFC will make no further comment about the investigation, it noted.

Hanergy Thin Film makes equipment and turnkey production lines for amorphous silicon thin-film PV modules and also develops solar projects in China, the US and Africa. The price for its stock fell by 46.95% on May 20, after which it was suspended from trading pending the release of “inside information”. In the 12 months before the plunge, Hanergy Thin Film's share price had grown by over 550%.

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