How things have changed for mainland aluminium producer China Zhongwang.
In May it was the darling of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company's IPO raised HK$9.8 billion, the largest globally for nine months, and made its chairman, Liu Zhongtian , a very rich man.
Today Zhongwang, which calls itself the world's third-largest seller of aluminium, is mired in controversy, having halted trading in its shares for more than a month without a full explanation.
Hedge fund short-sellers are buzzing around the firm, having rightly or wrongly sniffed blood. And at least two such speculators have hired private investigators to ferret for information about the firm, the South China Morning Post has learned.
In September, mainland newspaper the Economic Observer claimed that the top 10 customers named in Zhongwang's IPO document did not buy from the company in 2008. The paper later retracted the report, but investors began asking questions about the accuracy of its financial data.
Zhongwang appeared to rebuff all such concerns on January 5 when it released a statement that its auditor, Ernst & Young, had found 'no material deficiencies' in the prospectus. The shares rallied hard in relief, surging 7.2 per cent that day and 15.3 per cent a day later.