A few days ago, China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide (002145. SZ) issued the "Notice of Case Filing", and the company's actual controller Wang Zelong was filed by the CSRC on suspicion of violating the restrictive provisions of the transfer of the company's non-public issuance of shares in 2023, suspected of illegal information disclosure and other violations of laws and regulations.
In the secondary market, the share price of China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide hit a record low since July 2020 on February 6 this year, at 3.18 yuan, and then the company's share price rebounded. However, or affected by the filing of the actual controller, after the opening of the market on April 15, the company's stock price fell to a limit, as of the closing price of 3.95 yuan, the current total market value of the company is about 15.291 billion yuan.
After the market on April 15, CNNC Titanium Dioxide responded on the investor interactive platform that the case was filed for the investigation of the actual controller, and the subject of the case did not involve the company, and the company would continue to pay attention to the progress of the above matters and fulfill the information disclosure obligations in a timely manner in accordance with the requirements of laws and regulations. The company's corporate governance structure is perfect, and the current production and operation situation is normal.
The private placement violation involves two major securities firms
According to public information, China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide officially landed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2007, and its main business is the research and development, production and sales of rutile titanium dioxide, and it is one of the earliest titanium dioxide suppliers in China.
In fact, Wang Zelong became the owner of China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide in 2019, and in December of that year, Wang Zelong purchased 27.05% of the shares of China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide at a price of 3.8 yuan per share for 1.636 billion yuan, becoming the actual controller and controlling shareholder. As a post-95 generation, in the 2021 Forbes list of the world's youngest billionaires, Wang Zelong ranked second with $1.5 billion.
It is worth noting that at the same time as Wang Zelong was filed, Haitong Securities (600837. SH), CITIC Securities (600030. SH) two leading securities firms also disclosed on April 12 that they were filed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) for "suspected violations of laws and regulations in the process of transferring CNNC titanium dioxide's non-public issuance of shares in 2023 in violation of restrictive regulations".
In this regard, the two brokerages said that they will fully cooperate with the relevant work of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and at the same time strictly fulfill the information disclosure obligations in accordance with regulatory requirements, and the company's current business situation is normal.
In fact, the intersection of CITIC Securities, Haitong Securities and Wang Zelong stems from the private placement implemented by China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide in 2023. In February 2023, CNNC Titanium Dioxide issued a total of 893 million shares to 16 specific targets at an issue price of 5.92 yuan, raising a total of 5.288 billion yuan. After deducting the issuance fee, the company raised a net amount of 5.249 billion yuan, which will be used for the deep processing project of recycled titanium dioxide, the resource recycling project of water-soluble monoammonium phosphate (water-soluble fertilizer), the project with an annual output of 500,000 tons of iron phosphate and supplementary working capital.
In this private placement, CITIC Securities was the sponsor of the project, and Haitong Securities was one of the 16 subscription objects of the project, subscribing for 92,398,600 shares with 547 million yuan, ranking third in terms of subscription amount. After the completion of the private placement, Haitong Securities holds 2.39% of the shares of CNNC Titanium Dioxide, ranking the fourth largest shareholder of CNNC Titanium Dioxide. It is reported that the lock-up period for this private placement is 6 months, that is, from March 9, 2023 to September 9, 2023.
It should be noted that before this private placement, China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide successfully issued 462 million shares to Wang Zelong on September 30, 2020, at an issue price of 3.46 yuan per share, and the restriction period is 36 months from the date of listing of the new shares (that is, from September 30, 2020 to September 29, 2023). After the completion of this issuance, Wang Zelong's shareholding in China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide increased to 43.48%.
Regarding the date of lifting the ban on Wang Zelong and Haitong Securities, there was a "fight" in the announcement disclosed by China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide. Wang Zelong's release date was changed from September 29, 2023 to October 17, 2023, and Haitong Securities' release date was changed from September 11, 2023 (postponed to September 20, 2023) to September 20, 2023.
Although CNNC Titanium Dioxide did not disclose the specific violations of laws and regulations suspected by Wang Zelong, CITIC Securities and Haitong Securities, the clues can be seen from the changes in the company's securities lending volume.
Specifically, from January to February 3, 2023, the highest balance of CNNC titanium dioxide is only 5.0435 million yuan, and on February 10, the balance of securities lending is 10.3648 million yuan. By February 17, the balance of securities lending and borrowing surged to 624 million yuan, and then continued to remain at a high level of about 600 million yuan until it dropped to 14.5312 million yuan on September 22 of the same year. During this period, the share price of CNNC titanium dioxide fell from about 8 yuan to about 5 yuan. As of September 27, the closing price of CNNC titanium dioxide was 4.37 yuan per share, which was significantly discounted from the additional issue price subscribed by Haitong Securities.
At that time, in response to the abnormal behavior of CNNC titanium dioxide, some investors also proposed that "CNNC titanium dioxide will increase at a low price, the performance will be negative, the selling of securities will surge, and the stock price will fall sharply, and the securities will be bought back after the stock price has fallen significantly." Questioning.
The post-95 actual controller is also suspected of violating the letter disclosure
In addition to the suspected violation of restrictive provisions to transfer the non-public issuance of shares of China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide in 2023, Wang Zelong was also involved in information disclosure violations, which may be related to the auction of Panzhihua Xiaoheijing Jingjing Titanium Ore in November 2023.
At that time, the bidding price of the mining rights of Xiaoheijing Jingjing in Huili City climbed to 6.5 billion yuan, according to the assessment of industry insiders, the reasonable price of the mine was between 4 billion yuan and 5 billion yuan, far exceeding the reasonable price estimated by the market, and the bidder who finally won the bid was Tibet Yingsheng Industrial Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of only 30 million yuan.
According to Tianyancha, the legal person of Tibet Yingsheng Industrial Co., Ltd. is Zhang Zhiling, which has the same name as the legal person and shareholder of Chengdu Longlizhi Mining Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Longlizhi Mining), and the company has been cancelled. It is worth noting that Wang Zelong is a shareholder of Longlizhi Mining (holding 99% of the shares). What's more coincidental is that Yu Yikun, the supervisor of Longlizhi Mining, has the same name as the vice president of CNNC Titanium Dioxide.
On the interactive platform, an investor asked CNNC Titanium Dioxide whether it would participate in the auction of Panzhihua Xiaohejing Jingjing Ilmenite, and the company replied that "the auction of the qualification of investors in the reorganization of Panzhihua Jingjing Mineral Co., Ltd. and its affiliates has ended", and did not respond positively.
In addition, due to the similarity of the company's name, many investors mistakenly linked CNNC titanium dioxide to CNNC.
In this regard, CNNC issued a statement on April 14, saying, "CNNC titanium dioxide has no affiliation or equity relationship with our company, nor does it have any investment, cooperation, business and other relationships, all its actions have nothing to do with our company, and our company does not assume any obligations and responsibilities for any of its actions in accordance with the law, please be aware of the majority of market participants to avoid confusion." ”
As of the close of trading on April 15, Haitong Securities closed at 7.91 yuan, down 0.38%, and CITIC Securities closed at 17.74 yuan, down 1.11%. (This article was first published on the Titanium Media APP, author|Li Ruohan)