The heavy machinery manufacturer Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co halted its trading on the stock market Tuesday after a report said that it overstated its financial results in 2012.
The trading suspension on both the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong exchange came into effect at 9 am Tuesday, until "the publication of an announcement in relation to certain inside information," according to a statement posted Tuesday by the company on the Hong Kong exchange.
An anonymous insider accused Zoomlion of having overstated its first-quarter sales in East China by a factor of 10, the Hong Kong-based Ming Pao newspaper reported Tuesday.
The accuser said Zoomlion had counted potential sales as actual sales, which gave the appearance of a double-digit growth rate in the first nine months' profits as other domestic peers suffered sharp declines.
In the nine months through September 2012, Zoomlion reported net profit growth of 16.75 percent year-on-year, while its main rival Sany Heavy Industry Co, China's largest heavy machinery firm by revenue, reported a 58.76 percent yearly fall in the same period.
The two companies, both in Central China's Hunan Province, competed fiercely in 2012, and Sany announced at the end of the year that it would transfer its headquarters to Beijing.
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