BANK of Jinzhou Co., a city commercial lender in northeastern China, has decided to delay its US$600 million initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong as the city’s stock exchange asked for information on the lender’s loans made to the parent of troubled solar panel maker Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd.

    The Hong Kong stock exchange has asked the city bank to elaborate on an over US$1 billion credit line it made to Hanergy Group, which is controlled by Chinese tycoon Li Hejun and is the parent company of Hanergy Thin Film, board secretary Wang Jing said Friday.

    Hanergy Thin Film is being probed by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) following a massive share rally that ended in a spectacular market crash May 20.

    Bank of Jinzhou’s delayed IPO has become the first capital market casualty sparked by the Hanergy crisis. It also indicates regulators’ wider concerns about potential new threats to market integrity stemming from the Hanergy fallout.

    The Hong Kong exchange’s initial feedback was positive after the bank addressed the queries, Wang said, without elaborating. The lender has sold wealth management products that invested in Hanergy’s debt.

    Bank of Jinzhou, based in the city of Jinzhou in northeastern Liaoning Province, hopes to conduct the hearing for its IPO with Hong Kong’s exchange in late July as it can’t be completed this month, Wang said. It will take several weeks to audit the bank’s first-half financial reports, he said. (SD-Agencies)