The Globe and Mail article on TRE today:https://m.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/sino-forest-publishes-document-supporting-its-claims/article2065132/?service=mobile
A Chinese bureau of commerce has changed website information that itsays incorrectly identified Sino-Forest Corp. as an affiliate of acompany that sold $70-million of timber rights to the Canadian-basedforestry company in 2007.
According to what Sino-Forest identifiedas an “unofficial translation” of a letter from Hunan Huaihua CityBureau of Commerce, the note said that due “to an administrative error”it had incorrectly identified the timber seller, Huaihua City Yuda WoodCo. Ltd., as a related Sino-Forest company on its website.
The letter, dated June 15, apologized for the error and said thatYuda Wood is, in fact, a subsidiary of Sonic Jita Engineering Ltd., aHong Kong-based company.
Sino-Forest has appointed a specialcommittee of directors and hired outside experts to investigateallegations from a short-selling firm, Muddy Waters, that it hasinflated the value of extensive holdings of timber rights.
Theprobe is expected to take months because there is little publicinformation about the value of timber rights and contracts in China. Inaddition, investigators are analyzing bank records at a large number ofbanks and branches that do business with Sino- Forest.
MuddyWaters alleged in a report earlier this month that Yuda Wood was anaffiliate of Sino-Forest, one of the many convoluted corporaterelationships that the short-selling firm alleged allowed Sin-Forest toinflate asset valuations.
Sino Forest has vigorously denied theallegations. Since the report was released, it has seen its stock slidefrom more than $25 a share on the Toronto Stock Exchange to as little as$2.85. It traded at $3.17 early on Friday.