Dismissed Ultrasonic CEO says he didn't run off with firm's cash
The chief executive officer of shoemaker Ultrasonic AG, who was fired along with his son last week after they went missing, denied that he absconded with the company's cash as he resurfaced in China.
Wu Qingyong and his older son Wu Minghong, the chief operating officer, were dismissed on Sept. 18 after Frankfurt-listed Ultrasonic announced their whereabouts were unknown and that most of its cash had been transferred away and “no longer in the company's range of influence.”
Reports he had absconded with “several billion” yuan were “purely rumors,” the elder Wu said in a video interview posted by Chinese web portal Sina.com yesterday. Wu said he was on holiday in Hong Kong, and then went to the Philippines for a medical treatment.
Shares of Ultrasonic AG have plunged 86.2 percent since announcing that it couldn't contact its two key managers. It's the second time a senior executive from a Chinese company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange has disappeared this year, increasing investors concerns.
Ultrasonic's Hong Kong-based chief financial officer Chi Kwong Clifford Chan said he wasn't immediately able to comment on the video report when reached today, adding that he had not yet seen the elder Wu. The company on Sept. 18 said that insolvency procedures were imminent.
Lost Mobile Phone
The elder Wu, seen in the video seated next to a man identified as his second son Wu Mingjun, said he had lost his mobile phone while in Manila, and that he wasn't very familiar with English, which was why he couldn't be reached.
Wu Mingjun, who was identified in the Sina report as a deputy general manager for Ultrasonic, said in the video he had been in contact with his older brother who was “recovering from a condition” and that it was inconvenient to reveal more.
Wu Minghong, who Ultrasonic announced on Sept. 12 had informed the company he was taking a six-month leave of absence because of health problems, did not appear in the video.
“The financial status of the company is normal,” the elder Wu said in the Sina report. The reports had “caused great loss” to the company and his own reputation, and he reserved the right to seek legal recourse, he said.
On Aug. 1, Frankfurt-listed Chinese company Youbisheng Green Paper AG said it replaced Chief Executive Officer Haiming Huang after he disappeared. The company started preliminary insolvency proceedings two weeks later.