Shenzhen Fountain Corp, which won a high-profile defamation suit on Tuesday against Beijing's influential Caijing financial magazine, is no stranger to controversy.
Formerly known as textile producer Shenzhen Champaign Industrial, the company listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange in December 1990 as the first Sino-foreign joint venture to float on the fledgling markets.
In April 1992, however, it faced probes by the Shenzhen branch of the People's Bank of China and the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
They concluded that its controlling shareholder - Hong Kong's Panco Industrial - had embezzled publicly raised funds and bank loans, illegally transferring them overseas.
The findings led to the stock's suspension in July 1992 - the first firm to be suspended from the mainland stock exchanges for accounting irregularities.
Trading resumed only in January 1994, after a Shenzhen government-ordered restructuring which saw Hong Kong-based China Investments taking over as the largest shareholder and renaming it Shenzhen Fountain.
China Investments, which owns 34.54 per cent of Shenzhen Fountain, is controlled by Ding Peng, a niece of the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.
