For China Issuers, What’s Going Wrong?

In April, we talked about Kevin LaCroix’s great post in his D&O Diary about Chinese companies in trouble here. Already this year, twelve Chinese companies and their directors and officers have become defendants in U.S. shareholder securities litigation, up from ten for all of last year.

Last year, according to the Deal Journal, about 40 Chinese companies listed securities on U.S. stock exchanges. So, we said, if recent history is a guide, lots of them will also end up in trouble with shareholders and U.S. regulators.

Here’s a webcast on the topic (registration required, free of charge). It was sent to us by our sponsor, AlixPartners, and we’ve given a listen. The speakers explain the underlying problems at the Chinese companies, and how the companies are dealing with the SEC.

As we said in April, not all Chinese companies are crooked, but a lot of them don’t belong on U.S. exchanges. Not all Chinese owners and managers grasp the complex and hyper-stringent U.S. accounting and compliance rules. And what might be appropriate and acceptable in China — and may even exceed expectations there — just won’t cut it in the U.S.