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CEITAC AWARD: UPDATE 6th MAY 2019
On 5th May 2019, CEITAC announced the result of their determination in respect of the arbitration claim made by Honourfield against Mr Wang. The arbitration panel ruled that Mr Wang has to pay Honourfield approximately 31,000,000 RMB (£3.5 million) together with interest and that such payment should be made within 20 days of 5th May.
The result of the arbitration represents the full amount of our claim.
Following the above, we will now assess what further steps we need to take to obtain funds for the Company. This award represents the best outcome we could have expected, however given Mr Wang's disappearance, our ability to recover any funds will be challenging.
John McLean
Chairman
6th May 2019
UPDATE 17th DECEMBER 2018
In late November, I visited Inner Mongolia (IM) and met with the Party Secretary in Wulanchabu. He informed me that Wang signed a compensation agreement on 9th November 2017 for 53.55m rmb of which:
13.24m rmb was paid by the government to settle local claims, with the balance to be paid in cash to LVST.
IM Government promised to pay 10m by 15 Nov 2017 (it was paid).
The remaining amount was due to be paid (30m rmb) by Feb 15th 2018.
This amount was not paid by IM as there were claims from a court in Linyi.
Additionally
From what we were told in IM, the Linyi court has accepted claims for about 50m rmb; on top of this, we are aware from the Control Risks report that there is a registered bank charge (against the land) of 16m rmb, however this has not been called as the loan is still current.
To these amounts should be added employee claims (say 10m rmb) and Sorbic’s debt of say 36m rmb (including interest).
The LVST land in Linyi has an estimated value of between 40-80m rmb
Therefore the estimated assets are:
RMB m
IM: 30
Linyi Land 60
Total assets 90
Less Liabilities:
LinStaff 10
Total 90
To prove our debt (Wang’s debt is guaranteed by LVST and Sorbic called the guarantee in May 2018), we have lodged a claim with CEITAC which is due to be heard in late January. Additionally, to help matters, the IM authorities have agreed to freeze any actions/payments until Sorbic’s position is clarified.
The recovery % to Sorbic will be wholly dependent on the success of our arbitration claim and the success of Sorbic’s inclusion in the realisations of the assets of IM and LVST.
John McLean
Chairman
17th December 2018
So far not Clean . But downright dirty hands .
Come on John clean up this mess .
China Food Company (UK): Constituent Deletion Changes in FTSE UK Index Series 23 December 2014 Following the continued suspension and expected cancellation of AIM admission for China Food Company (UK, constituent), FTSE announces the following changes: Index Change Effective From Start of Trading FTSE AIM All-Share Index China Food Company (UK, B290WV9) will be deleted from the index at 0p. 29 December 2014 For further information or general enquiries please contact us at info@ftse.com or call: Client Services in UK: Tel: +44 (0) 20 7866 1810 Client Services in Europe, Middle East & Africa: Tel: +44 (0) 20 7866 1810 Client Services in US: New York: (Domestic) + 1 888 747 FTSE (3873) / (International): +1 212 314 1139 Client Services in Asia Pacific: Hong Kong: + 852 2164 3333 Australia:(Domestic Toll-Free) + 1800 653 680 / (International) + 61 (2) 9293 2864 Japan + 81 (3) 3581 2764 Alternatively please visit our website at www.ftse.com Terms of Use | Copyright © FTSE
Sorbic International (UK): Constituent Deletion Changes in FTSE UK Index Series 16 July 2015 Following the continued suspension of Sorbic International (UK, Constituent), FTSE announces the following changes: Index Change Effective From Start of Trading FTSE AIM All-Share Index Sorbic International (UK, B3CX3F3) will be deleted from the index at 0p. 21 July 2015
January , This precis was from one of our bondholders D .Lawson . My view is that Mr Mc Lean has a lot to answer for in getting us and CFC into this predicament . Time will tell if he can redeem himself and avoid being in the bad people list . I wait , like you and Mr Lawson to be convinced thatr Mr John McLean is not as bad as his Chinese counterparts . Good luck January
The nub of the issues appears to be this - the most obvious crime to Western observers is the removal of the cash from the LVST bank accounts that are known to the board. The cash may have been transferred into a personal account of Wang (clearly illegal) or into a new account in LVST's name known only to Wang (legal). Can he not be forced to disclose the location of the cash? Apparently not. What about the bank? Must the bank not disclose to the new Legal Representative of LVST, with the authority of the new LVST board, the details of the cash transfers? Apparently not. The bank feels restricted in what it can disclose to the new legal representative because it is not convinced the legal representative has been changed because the new legal representative cannot provide the chops and company seals as evidence of his status! In other words, it does not matter who owns the company. It does not matter who runs the company. It does not matter what legal documents say. All that matters is who holds the chops. Whoever holds the chops calls the shots. This is a painful lesson for us but puts into context Chinese valuations. It may look cheap, it may be profitable, it may have cash, but if a lunatic, a crook, a fraudster (or a combination of the three) alone holds the chops, it is probably worth nothing. D Lawson May 2015
Sorbic was propped up by another small fundraising. The preliminary results to 30 September 2014 were released on 19 January 2015. Revenues were down and Sorbic made a loss, however, cash balances were higher than ever at £6.9 million. A new framework agreement for Inner Mongolian compensation had been agreed "to cover sufficient carrying costs", which were disclosed as £2.5 million. There was no mention of business disruption compensation and this offer was a 50% haircut to the previously agreed £5 million. However, the new site at Linyi would be paid for by the local authorities through the substitution of the old plant for a new one so 'net net' we would be no worse off. The timing for the conclusion of negotiations of Linyi and the start of building was scheduled for the first half of 2015. We were also informed that the necessary actions to redeem the outstanding loan stock were being put in place. eCFO, a business consultancy based in China with experience of these issues, were appointed to advise and implement the funds transfer. Sorbic then went silent on the newswires. Wang was clearly not cooperating. Behind the scenes plans were being put in place to restart the process of removing Wang as Legal Representative. On 22 April, this became a fait accompli, with Wang removed from office as a board director of Sorbic and as legal representative of LVST. A new legal representative of LVST was installed - Mr Cai Lun, the managing partner of Guolan, a Beijing law firm. The remaining two directors of LVST were also replaced with Jay Boyle and Matt Winter, directors of eCFO, the company's advisers. This had to be great news. My Wang, the impediment to the repayment of outstanding loan stock due to us and others, had been removed. Again, we should have known better. Wang was not going without a fight. He removed the cash from LVST's bank accounts and declined to hand over the chops, which he had removed from the premises before he was dismissed. Surely this is illegal. Apparently not. The police were called but decided that Mr Wang's non-cooperation was a "commercial matter". This conclusion seemed astonishing to us. A minority shareholder who had created a fictitious loan, removed over £7 million of cash from the LVST's known bank accounts, refused to pay creditors, and removed the chops and company seals from the premises and refused to disclose their whereabouts was not deemed to be acting illegally! Furthermore, he was still on the premises running the company! The nub of the issues appears to be this - the most obvious crime to Western observers is the removal of the cash from the LVST bank accounts that are known to the board. The cash may have been transferred into a personal account of Wang (clearly illegal) or into a new account in LVST's name known only to Wang (legal). Can he not be forced to disclose the location of the cash? Apparently not. What about the bank? Must the bank not disclose to th
Beware Investing in China Posted by Douglas Lawson on 26/Jun/2015 It's all Wong "Chop" is a word that I have had little use for until recently. Since entering my lexicon around 12 months ago I have been using it with increasing frequency. In China, "chop" refers to a physical device, containing a company's seal, that is used to transact official business. Each chop must be approved by the Public Security Bureau (a Government office that acts as the provincial police) and a company may have various chops for different purposes, for example opening bank accounts, authorising invoices and paying suppliers. In the UK the signature of a legal representative of a company is normally legally binding but not in China. In China, it is possession of the chops that matter. I was to find this out the hard way. I first heard of Sorbic International plc ("Sorbic") in May 2010 when John McLean, the Chairman, came into our office in Edinburgh. We knew John through an investment in China Food Company plc, a manufacturer of animal feeds, soya sauce and other condiments. Five years ago, the UK, like much of the western world, was in the depths of the biggest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s and the prognosis was bleak. On the contrary, China was continuing its breakneck rate of growth and overtaking Japan as the world's second largest economy. Consumer spending was soaring and Sorbic offered us a means of exposing our funds to this trend. Sorbic's business is the manufacture of sorbates, namely sorbic acid and potassium sorbate which are used as food preservatives. Sorbic had listed on AIM in September 2008, raising £6 million through Finncap, the small cap London broker. Sorbic operated through a wholly-owned subsidiary called Linyi Van Science and Technique Company Limited ("LVST"), based in Linyi, Shangdong Province. Increasing demand for sorbates led the company to look for a new factory site where new capacity could be installed. This search led to Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia, over 1,000 miles from Linyi, where LVST would have better access to export markets and could take advantage of cheap land and financial incentives to build a factory that would double the existing capacity and feed burgeoning global demand. This new factory would be funded by the combination of a loan from Mr Wang Yan Ting ("Wang", pronounced 'Wong'), the CEO of Sorbic and founder of LVST, and a £3.5m placing of convertible loan notes (the "Loan Note(s)"). The Loan Notes would pay a coupon of 10% and would convert (at the option of the Loan Note holder) at 32p, a modest premium to the share price at the time. As an investor, this opportunity ticked lots of boxes. Here was a chance to access the fast growing, Far Eastern consumer economy in a protected instrument that was secured on hard assets and paid a generous coupon. What's more, if Sorbic delivered on its plans, we could convert into equity
January , Good news today from CFC . Mr Mc Lean`s other baby . Perhaps he isn`t the scoundrel one assumes. Time I suppose will tell . Good luck , we are all going to need it . Come on John , do some retrieving .
The Group's new LVST board is working closely with the Group's legal team in Beijing and the UK non-executive Directors, who have actively been on the ground in China in recent months addressing this issue and they will continue to return to China whenever they are needed. Ends. In short Mr Wang Yang Ting claims to have stolen the cash and thus Sorbic is insolvent. But it could be much worse. I suggest that Mr Ting actually stole the cash ages ago or borrowed against it using it is collateral and just hoodwinked the dim NEDS that it was there at every audit. There never was any cash because this is a fraud. For Sorbic read Naibu where the CEO is in prison although the dim NEDs are in denial because someone claiming to be CEO Houyan Lin has put in a few phone calls and sent a couple of emails. It too has no cash. Meanwhile a raft of other AIM China stocks claim to be sitting on vast cash piles but can’t seem to afford cash dividends. JQW, Jiasen, Camkids, China Chaintek. Does Chris Gibson Smith start to see any pattern emerging yet?
The London Stock Exchange denies that there is a problem with China AIM frauds. What planet is patrician twit Chris Gibson Smith on? Well it is only dirty little people (aka private investors) who are being cleaned out so who gives a FF anyway, Chris old boy? This brings us to Sorbic (SORB) which today admitted that its CEO has stolen all its money, In fact I reckon it’s worse than that. You will remember that Sorbic PLC has debts of £3.75 million but claimed to have c£7.7 million in cash sitting in China. So dirty little private investors thought the stock was trading at a discount to net cash and bought the shares, no doubt from willing Chinese sellers. But it proved hard to get hold of that cash to pay the PLC bills, interest, repay debt etc. so eventually the UK Neds fired the CEO and said that they had brought in a Chinese law firm to sort it all out. And so today it finally fessed up: Further to the announcement of 22 April 2015, Mr Wang Yan Ting ("Mr. Wang"), the Company's CEO has been removed from office, both at the Board (plc) level and in respect of the operating subsidiary ("LVST") in China. Furthermore, Mr. Wang's role as Legal Representative in China has been terminated and he has been replaced by Mr. Cai Lun, the managing partner of Guolan, a Beijing law firm. Since being replaced as the Company's Legal Representative for LVST in China and from the LVST board, Mr. Wang has declined to hand-over the Company's corporate seals (chops) and business licences, which he removed from the premises before he was dismissed. The local police were contacted, but deemed Mr. Wang's non-cooperation as a commercial matter and were therefore unwilling to assist. As a result of Mr. Wang's non-cooperation, the bank accounts and the day-to-day operations of the Company still remain under the control of Mr. Wang. Furthermore, Mr. Wang has confirmed that he has transferred funds belonging to the Company which remain under his control and, to date, he has refused to return them. At 31 March 2015, management accounts showed total cash balances of approximately RMB 72 million (£7.7 million). Sorbic International plc is wholly reliant on the transfer of funds from China to meet its operating costs and to repay the loan notes of approximately £3.75 million which, as detailed in the Company's preliminary results released in January 2015, remain outstanding and are therefore in default. As a result of the above, the financial position of Sorbic International plc is uncertain. The Board has been informed that the Company's factory in Linyi continues to be fully operational and Mr. Wang remains in regular contact with the Company. The Group's new LVST board is working closely with the Group's legal team in Beijing and the UK non-executive Directors, who have actively been on the ground in China in recent months addressing this issue and they will continue to return to China whenev
Logic and Mr Mc Clean do they travel hand in hand ?. Keeping a close eye on CFC , his other illegitimate baby . Good luck January & I & Mr Mc Clean
Hope you`re right January. Keeping a close eye on CFC too , which has had loan notes extended again . Odd shenanigans indeed . Good luck
Sorbic’s ex-CEO refuses to give back £8 million: The deposed Chinese Chief Executive of Sorbic International, an Aim-quoted food additive business operating in Shandong province, has refused to hand over nearly £8 million of the company’s cash and is continuing to control its day-to-day operations
Good news today , at least the BOD are on our side and trying to get Wang to come clean and pay up . Could be an interesting few months ahead . Let`s hope it`s all sorted beneficially to all concerned . Good luck all
Sorbic International (SORB) Add to Alerts list Print Mail a friend Friday 01 May, 2015 Sorbic International Suspension of trading RNS Number : 9294L Sorbic International PLC 01 May 2015 Sorbic International Plc ("Sorbic" or "the Company") Suspension of trading The Directors of the Company have requested suspension of its shares pending clarification of Sorbic International plc's financial position. Further announcements will be made in due course. CONTACTS For further information: Sorbic International plc Tel: +44 (0)7768 031 454 John McLean, Chairman www.sorbicinternational.com finnCap (Nomad) Geoff Nash / Kate Bannatyne Tel: +44 (0) 20 7220 0500 Hybridan LLP (Broker) Claire Louise Noyce Tel: +44 (0) 20 3713 4581 Media enquiries: Abchurch Communications Henry Harrison-Topham / Canace Wong Tel: +44 (0)20 7398 7714 canace.wong@abchurch-group.com www.abchurch-group.com Notes to Editors: www.sorbicinternational.com About Sorbic International plc Sorbic International's principal activity is the production and sale of the food preservatives Sorbic Acid and Potassium Sorbate from its base in Linyi City, Shandong Province, Peoples Republic of China. Approximately half of Sorbic International's production is sold to overseas markets and half into the Chinese domestic market. Sorbic Acid is a naturally occurring organic compound that is used in all kinds of foods for its anti-decomposition and anti-fungus function and also in grains, medicines, cosmetics, toothpaste, tobacco, animal feed, latex, paper-manufacturing and pesticides. Potassium Sorbate is used to inhibit moulds and yeasts in many foods, such as cheese, wine, yogurt, dried meat, baked goods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Sorbic International operates through its wholly owned subsidiary Linyi Van Science and Technique Co. Ltd ("LVST"). This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange END SUSURRNRVOASOAR
Could be bad or good , it all depends on whether we get restored . One assumes the BOD have managed to get the funds back and sorted out the new factory . Good luck all ( it`s a cliff hanger ) .
Lets hope its good news... Ha !
Making a small profit & food product in demand..whats not too like at these prices? Woeth remembering this was trading at 8p+ before the £6m writedown in 2013 accounts..this plus the cash due to land makes for a strong small company with good chance of a 3 bagger as the freefloat is miniscule..
A little buying today , hopefully the news is good. Good luck all
here on the money transfer from China..
Buy in my opinion , not too large though . Good luck all & sundry
avoid imv