Hanergy, a high-tech energy enterprise listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, witnessed a huge slump on Wednesday.

Li Hejun, Hanergy Holdings Chairman.[File photo/China.org.cn]

Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Limited (00566.HK) fell by 47.35 percent in one and half hours after the Hong Kong stock market started trading.

The slump means Li Hejun, Hanergy Holdings Chairman, who holds 80.89 percent of the company's shares, saw his assets fall in value by 116.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$93.4 billion).

Li is one of China's richest men and was at number five in Forbes' recent richest Chinese list released in April 2015 with a fortune of US$21.1 billion.

Shares in the solar company rose in value from 2.81 Hong Kong dollars per share in early 2015 to 7.35 Hong Kong dollars per share just before the slump. But they came to a stunning halt on Wednesday morning. Hanergy Thin Film Power shares were then suspended at 3.91 Hong Kong dollars per share at 10:40 a.m. after they crashed by 47 percent.

The company was the subject of several critical media reports that questioned its revenue and technology. A Financial Times analysis of two years of Hanergy Thin Film stock trading data -- more than 800,000 individual trades on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange -- shows that shares consistently surged late in the day, about 10 minutes before the exchange closes, from the start of 2013 until February this year.

China National Radio reported that an insider said the Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong started an investigation into the shares to see if there was price manipulation very early, but couldn't find enough evidence. Now it seems that there may be interest conflicts and someone is providing evidence, or the major players have withdrawn due to funding pressure.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Limited is a high-tech energy enterprise listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company's principal activities include the manufacture of equipment and turnkey production lines for manufacturing silicon based thin-film power modules and the development of thin-film power application products.

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