http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a5b43b32-b790-11e4-8807-00144feab7de.html#axzz3SA7rKDH3

February 18, 2015 6:30 pm

Sports shoe maker loses track of bosses

Miles Johnson and Harriet Agnew

Directors of London-quoted Chinese sports shoe maker Naibu have been forced to admit that they have lost all contact with the company’s chairman and senior executive, in the latest controversy to hit Aim. Naibu, which once said it was China’s 10th largest sportswear brand, listed four years ago on Aim — the London Stock Exchange’s market for fast-growing but often high-risk companies, which was once labelled “a casino” by US regulators.On Wednesday, Naibu’s UK-based non-executive directors said they had received no responses to their enquiries from Lin Huoyan, Naibu’s chairman and co-founder, and its executive director Lin Congdeng — and, as a result, could not assess the company’s financial performance.

Naibu shares were suspended from trading on Aim in early January with no explanation. The shares had collapsed from a listing price of 124p to a last close of 11.5p — or a 90 per cent drop.

“I have never seen an announcement like this before and it’s very alarming,” said Paul Cornelius, director of Walbrook Investor Relations, which works with 55 Aim companies. “This is detrimental to the reputation of Aim and may put off investors.”

Read more: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a5b43b32-b790-11e4-8807-00144feab7de.html#axzz3SA7rKDH3