张志熔辞任熔盛重工董事会主席

Zhang Zhirong, one of China’s richest men, has abruptly resigned from his post at the helm of shipbuilding empire Rongsheng Heavy Industries.

中国最大富豪之一张志熔突然宣布，辞去在其执掌的“造船帝国熔盛重工(Rongsheng Heavy Industries)担任的职位。

Mr Zhang was at the centre of a probe this year by the US Securities and Exchange Commission concerning alleged illegal insider trading in shares of Nexen, the Canadian energy group, by Well Advantage, a company he controlled. Nexen is being acquired by Cnooc, the Chinese state-owned oil group.

张志熔是今年美国证交会(SEC)展开的一项内幕交易调查中的核心人物。张志熔旗下的Well Advantage公司涉嫌对加拿大能源集团尼克森(Nexen)的股票从事非法内幕交易。目前，中国国有石油集团中海油(Cnooc)正在收购尼克森。

Rongsheng, the shipbuilding group, yesterday said Mr Zhang was stepping down as chairman “to devote more time to his personal endeavours, according to a statement posted on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Mr Zhang also announced he was stepping down as chairman of Glorious Properties, a Hong Kong-listed real estate company he controls.

熔盛重工昨日在港交所(HKex)发布公告称，张志熔辞任公司董事会主席，以便“更专注于处理私人业务。张志熔同时宣布辞任恒盛地产(Glorious Property)董事会主席。恒盛地产是张志熔旗下一家香港上市房地产公司。

Neither Rongsheng nor Glorious mentioned the insider-trading probe in the announcements.

熔盛重工和恒盛地产在公告中均未提及上述内幕交易调查。

Well Advantage reached a settlement with the SEC in October as part of the insider-trading probe. It agreed to pay back more than $7m in gains it made by purchasing Nexen shares ahead of the Cnooc-Nexen deal, as well as a $7m fine. It neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing.

今年10月，Well Advantage就内幕交易调查与SEC达成了和解。Well Advantage同意返还在中海油与尼克森达成收购协议之前买入尼克森股票获利的700万美元，同时缴纳700万美元罚款。但该公司既未承认也未否认自己存在不当行为。