Richard Chandler Corp, the biggest shareholder of Sino Forest Corp, has appointed a team to lead the restructure of the forestry company that filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
Richard Chandler, which has a 19.49% stake in the company, says Sino-Forest needs to rebuild based on good governance, entrepreneurship and conservative financing, according to a statement from the Singapore-based private investment group.
Sino-Forest filed for bankruptcy protection as part of a plan that may see the Chinese timber grower sold to bondholders, nine months after it was accused of fraud by short seller Carson Block.
Investors in Sino-Forest, once the largest Chinese forestry company by market value, lost about C$3.3bn since Block’s research firm Muddy Waters LLC published a report last June, accusing it of overstating earnings. The shares plunged 74% before being suspended on August 26 amid investigations by Canadian regulators and police. Allen Chan, the company’s co-founder, stepped down as chief executive officer in August.
