Photo/Shetuwang

Dec. 25 (NBD) -- Bright Dairy & Food Co., Ltd. (600597.SH) won the auction for the assets of two Jiangsu-based units fully owned by China Huishan Dairy Development (Hong Kong) Limited ("Huishan HK") at a price of approximately 751 million yuan (107 million U.S. dollars), the Shanghai-listed dairy company said in an exchange filing Tuesday evening. 

This was deemed as the first step taken by China Huishan Dairy Holdings Company ("Huishan Dairy") to dispose of its assets. Huishan HK is a joint venture run by Huishan Dairy and Nantong, Jiangsu-based Zongyi Investment Co., Ltd.

With effect from 9:00 am on Monday, the listing of the shares of Huishan Dairy was cancelled by the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong as the company failed to submit any resumption proposal before the designated date. Trading of the company's shares had been suspended since 24 March 2017, after short-seller Muddy Waters said the company is "worth close to zero" and questioned its profitability in a report. 

The assets of the two units of Huishan HK were put up for auction at Taobao's judicial auction platform on December 23-24 with a starting price of 500 million yuan, and took 61 bids in the process and eventually went to Bright Dairy. Proceeds from the auction will be used to repay matured debts. 

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn