Breakingviews - Biotech nears cure for Chinese corporate epidemic

NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Just as Covid lingers, so too does a protracted corporate battle over more than $10 billion earned trying to protect people from the deadly virus. A ruthless clash for control of Sinovac Bioscience, whose vaccine became one of the world's biggest sellers, has left its stock untradeable on Nasdaq for more than six years. A fresh fight for the board may determine whether the heap of money is distributed to shareholders or, like so many others in U.S.-listed Chinese companies, they wind up getting stiffed.
Although Sinovac's plight is an extreme example, it's emblematic of the often-underappreciated investment risks created by ubiquitous labyrinthine Chinese business structures. The company is based in Beijing, incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda, with shares quoted on an American bourse, and a pivotal subsidiary that may be governed by arbitration in Hong Kong. As U.S. lawmakers renew a push, opens new tab to delist all Chinese companies from U.S. exchanges, there's a danger that more shareholders will get short-changed.
Sinovac's saga started long before the infectious coronavirus began its deadly, opens new tab spread across the planet. A failed takeover tussle led to a legal brawl to control the boardroom, ultimately prompting Nasdaq officials in February 2019 to stop, opens new tab open buying or selling of shares. The drama at turns involved violence and corporate espionage.
The pandemic significantly raised the financial stakes. Because of the trading halt, shareholders were unable to capitalize on the windfall that resulted from Sinovac producing, opens new tab at least 2.9 billion doses of its CoronaVac jab. While rival vaccine maker Moderna's (MRNA.O), opens new tab market value soared to $180 billion, Sinovac shares remained frozen at $6.47, imputing a $460 million market capitalization. The Covid bonanza has left more than $10 billion in cash and short-term investments sitting idle on the company's balance sheet. The stockpile alone is worth more than $140 a share, or 22 times the suspended price.
For long-suffering equity owners, a potential resolution is getting tantalizingly closer. A special shareholder meeting next month tees up the culmination of a corporate war that has been raging for nearly a decade, costing millions of dollars for armies of lawyers, accountants, investigators and spin doctors.
Two broadly delineated camps lead the campaigns. On one side is Sinovac founder and Chief Executive Weidong Yin, whose 2018 plan to take the company private failed, as did his subsequent attempt to retain oversight of the board. He is backed by Asian buyout firm SAIF Partners, a longtime 15% shareholder, and two other investors, Vivo Capital and Advantech Capital, which hold a combined, but disputed, 16% stake.
The rival group is led by Chairman Jiaqiang 'Chiang' Li, whose 1Globe Capital family office owns a big slug of the company and is supported by various related parties, healthcare investment giant OrbiMed, and Boston-based Heng Ren Partners, which has been fighting, opens new tab for years to extract payments to Sinovac shareholders.
Although multiple legal hurdles to a resolution remain, a significant one was cleared in January. Following seven years of court appeals, opens new tab, the UK Privy Council, Antigua's top tribunal, deemed the 1Globe-supported slate of directors to be Sinovac's legitimate board, duly elected in 2018 but prevented from taking office by Yin's incumbent crew. The group, only now led by Li, declared a $55-a-share special dividend, opens new tab worth nearly $4 billion, one of the biggest ever paid by a U.S.-listed Chinese company.
Fresh conflicts hang in the balance, however. SAIF, the shareholder supporting Yin, has called, opens new tab for a special meeting, opens new tab and nominated, opens new tab 10 directors, including both Yin and Li, representatives from other big shareholders, and ones ousted by the Privy Council's decision. The meeting is scheduled for July 9, originally the same day the dividend, opens new tab was due to be distributed. On Tuesday, Sinovac's board brought forward, opens new tab the payment to July 7, declared a second payout of $19 a share and intentions for a third one as high as $50 per share, taking the total potential outlay to almost $9 billion.
Further muddling matters, Sinovac has lost its auditor. Following the January court ruling, opens new tab, Grant Thornton Zhitong told the company, opens new tab it could no longer stand behind years of financial statements and internal controls. As a result, Sinovac missed a deadline to disclose certified 2024 annual results and is scrambling to find a new accountant to comply, opens new tab with Nasdaq listing requirements by July 15. No wonder Sinovac shareholders are anxious.
The controversy stretches back to February 2016, when the company accepted Yin's management buyout proposal, opens new tab over a higher bid, opens new tab from a joint venture partner, Shandong Sinobioway Biomedicine, which was backed by Li's 1Global. Before the deal closed, Sinovac held what would turn out to be its last annual general meeting, in February 2018. Sinobioway helped orchestrate a rebellion, encouraging, opens new tab shareholders to attend in person and vote against Yin's board, while a proxy for Li-supporting OrbiMed nominated a new slate of directors at the eleventh hour. When the insurgents won more votes, Sinovac said the ambush was invalid and that its sitting directors had been reelected, opens new tab. As a defensive maneuver, the company also triggered a dilutive poison pill, which was later invalidated by courts.
With the election contested, the fight intensified. In April 2018, Sinovac co-founder and Sinobioway Chairman Aihua Pan, and dozens of others, forcibly entered, opens new tab a Beijing facility to steal the company's official seals and seize control, according to court documents, opens new tab and company statements, opens new tab. Sinovac said the intruders left behind incriminating evidence on laptops of the earlier plan to replace the board. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission found, opens new tab that investors had banded together without making the requisite disclosures. 1Globe and Li agreed to pay $290,000 in fines.
These feuds, and others involving, opens new tab former Sinovac director and 1Globe executive Pengfei Li, set the scene for the upcoming showdown. Anticipating that Yin's takeover bid lacked the necessary shareholder support, Sinovac terminated it, opens new tab in July 2018. Soon after, it raised $87 million by selling shares to Vivo and Advantech, in a private placement known as a PIPE. The money was supposedly meant to help fund new vaccines, but the company said years later that it had 'not yet been utilized, opens new tab.'
A subsequent transaction amplified concerns about Sinovac's relationship with the two investors. In May 2020, as researchers around the world raced to develop a Covid vaccine, the company arranged for its R&D division, Sinovac Life Sciences, to borrow, opens new tab $15 million from the pair as a loan convertible into 7.5% of the unit's equity. The investment, whose necessity and valuation were dubious, would turn out to be extremely rewarding. Sinovac distributed about $2.7 billion in dividends from the start of 2021 through the middle of 2024, most of it to minority backers of its R&D unit. The company says Vivo and Advantech were paid, opens new tab more than $800 million, a return of 50 times their initial investment.
All this was prelude to the brutal fight for the remaining cash. The Li clan, which now controls the company, considers the shares sold to Vivo and Advantech void. Cancelling the deal would prevent the two investors from receiving a cut of the dividend and negate their votes at the upcoming shareholder meeting, although Sinovac says it has set aside funds for the duo's portion of the payout, pending litigation. Advantech has asked a federal court in New York to 'preserve the status quo,' while it pursues arbitration rulings in Hong Kong and Beijing. Vivo is suing, opens new tab in Antigua and the United States, alleging that the board and 1Globe are acting illegally.
In one of the lawsuits, Vivo accuses Li and his allies of trying to 'loot' Sinovac and says it supports, opens new tab dividends for all. It's a tough case to make, as the investor for years did not publicly press the board to disburse its excess cash more widely. In fact, under Yin's leadership, Sinovac told the SEC two years ago that it had no intention, opens new tab of paying any dividends 'in the near future.'
There are reasonable questions to pose about the Li clan's motives and tactics, but the case against Yin's team looks stronger. The ousted chairman and his board selectively paid a fortune to the R&D unit's investors, two of which became significant shareholders after they had backed his ill-fated acquisition of Sinovac, but no one else. If Yin and his supporters regain control on July 9, Sinovac could end up delisted by Nasdaq, leaving shareholders to start another painstaking attempt to get their hands on the cash.
It's not the first time that investors in U.S.-listed Chinese companies have been short-changed. In 2016, the chairman of Qihoo 360 led a deal to take the antivirus software developer private by squeezing out minority shareholders at a roughly $9 billion valuation. Two years later, the company relisted, opens new tab in Shanghai at more than $60 billion.
In another disputed episode, the chairman of SoftBank-backed RenRen, China's doomed answer to Facebook, unsuccessfully tried to buy, opens new tab the company in 2015 at a 70% discount to its initial public offering price. He later spun off RenRen's valuable investments, including one in online lender SoFi Technologies, into a new outfit he controlled. Minority shareholders sued and ultimately secured a landmark $300 million settlement, opens new tab. As with Sinovac's cross-border jurisdictional mess, a major obstacle for RenRen investors was convincing a judge that New York was the right venue for their lawsuit against a Cayman Islands company with its main operations in China.
Sinovac's response to the Advantech lawsuit in New York sums up the sentiment: 'This is an action commenced by a foreign entity, to enjoin a foreign proceeding, in favor of a different foreign proceeding, involving a foreign company, foreign conduct, and the application of foreign law that does not belong in this Court,' it argued this week.
Ultimately, this is what gives the Sinovac soap opera broader relevance. A U.S. congressional committee in March identified, opens new tab 286 Chinese companies trading on American exchanges with a total market value of $1.1 trillion. Nearly 50 of them have listed since January 2024. Sinovac's vaccines may have helped prevent millions of deaths, but its cautionary financial tale, if properly absorbed, stands a chance at saving millions of dollars for investors, too.
Follow Jeffrey Goldfarb on X, opens new tab and LinkedIn, opens new tab.

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Daily Record

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Woman had to pay £20k to access her own bank account as husband was dying

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You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Andy had not appointed a legal or digital executor, prepared a will, or set up a power of attorney before his illness and death. Nicky, from Manchester, told The Mirror: 'It was an unholy mess. Andy kept all of the savings in his ISA. 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She struggled to guess passwords and wished she could inform his friends about his condition and share regular updates. ‌ Contacting customer service representatives on social media platforms was 'impossible'. Nicky added: 'Every other day, a Facebook memory pops up with Andy, it's a beautiful yet heartbreaking reminder. 'I would have loved to have created a post for the love of Andy and put that on his account, but I never got the chance to do that.' She also lost messages from her husband. She said: 'I lost every WhatsApp conversation I had with him, and you don't understand how heartbreaking and painful that is. Not being able to go back and look at those memories. ‌ 'You need to back those up, save your WhatsApp conversations. It was something I had to experience.' 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Metro

6 hours ago

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Why Iran closing this 103-mile stretch of ocean could be catastrophic

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Edinburgh Reporter

9 hours ago

• Edinburgh Reporter

What future for Regent Road Bowling Green?

Edinburgh has a profusion of community projects injecting energy and optimism into abandoned and underused spots in the city. Key to these is a desire to keep such places within the public domain and for them to contribute to community life – and also to greening the city. Successful projects include Leith Community Growers, Lochend Secret Garden, and The Sunshine on Leith Community Garden (tucked behind tenements near Sloan Street). There is hope that Regent Road Bowling Green in Abbeyhill can follow this path, turning an abandoned site into a community run space. Bowled over While many private bowling clubs are in a healthy situation, many council-owned bowling greens are no longer being used. Abandoned bowling greens are evident across the city, from Harrison Park to Powderhall and Leith Links. This raises questions as to how these fantastic assets can best be put to use, while keeping them within the public domain. Successful examples include the allotments on Victoria Park, which are gradually turning into community allotments. Regent Road Bowling Green when in use Regent Community Bowling Club suffered badly during the Covid-19 pandemic and transferred stewardship back to the council. This transfer has prompted renewed discussions and initiatives aimed at revitalising the site for the benefit of the local community. The Thriving Green Space Team of The City of Edinburgh Council set things in motion. Local groups such as Colony of Artists, Abbeyhill Action, and Leith Community Growers have expressed interest in keeping the Bowling Green as part of the local community. Two locals, Kat Chisolm and Tom Adams (of Abbeyhill Colony of Artists) have now taken on the lease of the site, on a month by month rolling basis. They've been negotiating with the council for two years, but need now to turn hopes into concrete steps. To secure a longer term lease, they need to show the council that there is strong community support and that a capable management team is in place. Securing a long-term lease is a prerequisite for funding applications. For example, Leith Community Growers were very interested in getting involved but would have required at least a five-year lease to make it workable for them. Regent Road Bowling Green in the haar, by alljengi on Strike while the iron is hot This need to put together a capable, legally constituted management committee, including a diverse range of people and skills, was the aim of a drop-in session on Saturday. Despite the cool, foggy morning, dozens of people turned up, creating quite a buzz. Kat and Tom were happy to see a good range of ages and 'skill sets' among those offering their assistance. As Kat and Tom emphasised, while statements of support are welcome, it was offers of active involvement that are really required at this stage. They need to 'strike while the iron is hot' and not just talk about it but actually do something'. Kat and Tom have no interest in carrying the project on just by themselves. They've taken on the role 'as guardians for the community' to keep the site in the public domain. They are aware that the council would be happy to see the site being used by a business, following examples such as the Herringbone Restaurant, which uses the former public toilets in Royal Terrace Gardens on London Road. Other such examples include the Toll House at Canonmills. Many regard such projects as denuding the public domain. The most controversial example was the effort to turn the former Royal High School, just along the road from the Regent Road Bowling Green, into a hotel. That project was eventually blocked, but illustrated the pressures on the council to seek large injections of money from offloading public assets. Those at the drop-in session on Saturday all seem to share a desire that this would not be the case with the bowling green. So many possibilities Kat and Tom have to be able to prove that whatever project emerges is financially viable. If this could be established (alongside community use), the council would happily 'bow out and leave us to it'. At present, a steady trickle of income comes from some local businesses who make use of a small car park which is part of the site. Kat notes that 'we could charge more', but that having people using the site regularly helps keep the site used and monitored. The need to keep the place checked had been emphasised the day before when Kat's husband had discovered a dead body in one of the huts. According to the police 'The death is being treated as unexplained but is not believed to be suspicious'). A sobering moment for all concerned. The areas around the sheds were taped off but this was also because the sheds are in a rather dilapidated shape. However, Kat and Tom believe they could be restored and repurposed. Tom himself brings joinery skills and feels that, though the structures on the site are not in good condition (including asbestos in one of them and leaking roofs), bringing them back to life is 'all doable'. One model to follow is that of Leith Community Croft (on the western tip of Leith Links), which has done a fantastic job of bringing life to abandoned tennis courts and restoring an old sports pavilion there, turning it into a superb community space and café. A community café is high up on Kat and Tom's initial set of proposals, although they are open to alternative ideas from those who join them. There are, as Kat put it, 'so many possibilities'. One of the sheds had to be removed last year as it had become dangerously unstable. But the footprint of that structure could be built on as part of the project, adding an extension to one of the sheds. Magnificent views The key asset is the bowling green itself. It's a fantastically sheltered green space, surrounded by banks thick with vegetation. At present, only the local rabbits have access (the way I saw one of the rabbits chasing off a blackbird suggests that the rabbits feel they now own the place!). On days when the haar isn't hanging over the city, the bowling green offers magnificent views towards Arthur's Seat. It must be one of the finest urban views in Europe. Fundamental to the project is that this site cannot be built on; it must be preserved as a green space. The green is also a substantial size, so could be put to multiple uses. Tom has the idea of some sort of sculpture at the centre, with the four quarters of the green used for different purposes. Some raised beds for gardening and fruit growing (there is some concern about the soil under the grass, given the amount of fertiliser applied to the bowling green over the decades), a children's play area and perhaps one quarter used for pétanque, a sport which is growing in popularity. Examples in the city include Ferranti Bowling Club in Inverleith Park. One advantage is that pétanque is played on hard dirt or gravel, much easier to maintain than a manicured bowling green. For Tom, pétanque would be a nice way of paying homage to the previous occupants of the green by 'keeping the bowling vibe going'. For Tom, the place should also have a 'healing' character, making use of the well-established positive impact that gardening -and simply being in calm green spaces- has on mental health. This aspect has been emphasised in a number of other community projects; recognising that those who live in tenements have limited access to green space. This was also mentioned by many of those in attendance on Saturday, who were very keen to see the space publicly accessible, not 'privatised'. Political support Lorna Slater was among those in attendance. As a local resident she commented that she regularly walks past the bowling green and had wondered what its status was. She was 'really excited' to see that efforts were being made to make it into a community space, aware of the limited green space that tenement dwellers in Abbeyhill have. Ms Slater offered her support to the project and told Kat and Tom that she would 'tap into the resources of the Parliament' to assist the project with grant applications and the like. Assisting projects such as this, which can 'get stuck' was, Slater emphasised, 'something that MSPs can do'. It seemed clear from Saturday's event that substantial support exists for a community- based future for Regent Road Bowling Green. The task now is turning that support into creating a team that will take responsibility for developing a plan, seeking funding, and managing the green towards the aim of community ownership. This committee's work will be essential for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the bowling green as a community asset. Those interested in further information and getting involved can contact the project at: [email protected] Like this: Like Related