Aluminum products manufacturer China Zhongwang appointed auditing firm Ernst & Young to review its prospectus after media and analysts questioned the accuracy of its disclosure of major customers in the document, which convinced investors to pony up USD 1.3 billion in Hong Kong in an initial public offering in May.

To attempt to regain investors' sinking confidence in the company, China Zhongwang said that it had hired Ernst & Young as an external auditor to conduct an independent review of the sales transactions with its 10 major customers during the period from January 1st 2008 to June 30th 2009. Ernst & Young will also inspect income tax documents for the financial year ended in December 2008.

The independent review is Zhongwang's latest attempt to restore its reputation as one of Asia's largest extruded aluminum product makers and to help its chairman Liu Zhongtian gain back his ranking as China's richest person.

Having raised USD 1.3 billion on May 8, China Zhongwang attracted broad media coverage as the biggest IPO in Hong Kong in the H1 of the year and as the first company to tap over USD 1 billion on any global stock market for nine months.

Based on China Zhongwang's listing price of HKD 7 per share, the 45 year old Liu Zhongtian at one point reached a net worth of USD 3.6 billion thanks to his 74% stake in Zhongwang. That surpassed the USD 3 billion wealth of others on the Forbes China Rich List, East Hope Group's Liu Yongxing and the USD 3.3 billion of Country Garden Holdings' Yang Huiyan.

Yet the fame of China Zhongwang has been widely fading since September 14, when mainland Chinese newspaper China Economic Observer reported that some customers named in Zhongwang's IPO prospectus did not order aluminum products from Zhongwang in 2008.

(Sourced from forbes.com)