Date: Thu Dec 02 2004 12:25
AURUM (Maybe someone (Chinese government) stepped on crude yesterday to help them out) ID#113234:
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China Aviation Oil lost millions in derivatives
AP , SINGAPORE
Thursday, Dec 02, 2004,Page 12
Singapore financial markets were jolted yesterday after a Chinese jet-fuel supplier listed in the city-state said it had racked up US$550 million in losses on derivative trades and was seeking protection from its creditors.
China Aviation Oil , whose shares have been suspended since Monday, said late Tuesday it was facing a "financial crisis," and had suspended chief executive Chen Jiulin while accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers investigated what went wrong.
The unit's state-linked parent, China Aviation Oil Holding Co, has extended a US$100 million emergency loan to the troubled group. In addition, a team of special investigators has been dispatched from China to assess the damage, the parent company said yesterday.
The scandal could be the biggest case of losses from speculative trading to hit Singapore since Nick Leeson rung up US$1.2 billion in losses that led to the collapse of Britain's Barings Bank in 1995.
"For shareholders this is a corporate earthquake registering, say, 9.5 on the Richter scale," David Gerald, chief executive of the Securities Investors Association of Singapore, told NewsRadio 93.8 yesterday.
"This is another Barings," the head of the investors' lobby group said.
taipeitimes.com |
