Hong Kong-based conglomerate Citic Pacific said Sunday that trading in its shares would remain suspended, indicating that a police investigation into the company is more complex than it previously expected. The company announced a temporary suspension of its shares last Friday after the police executed a search warrant at the company's headquarters.

On April 3, Citic Pacific announced that the Commercial Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police had executed a search warrant requiring the company and its directors to provide information concerning past foreign exchange dealings.

The company statement said the police had launched "an investigation of its directors for alleged false statements and conspiracy to defraud".

On Sunday the company issued a further statement saying that its application to recommence share trading on April 6 had proven impossible.

According to HK media reports, the police took a large number of documents from the Citic Pacific headquarters on April 3. Industry sources said the fact that the police were taking the lead in the investigation shows it is a very serious matter.

Last year, Citic Pacific bought currency contracts to fund an iron ore mine in Australia. The company had expected the Australian dollar to rise, but suffered huge losses after the currency collapsed. In March, Citic Pacific posted an annual loss of HK$8.65 billion.

For more details, please read the full Chinese coverage at:

http://www.china-cbn.com/s/n/000004/20090407/000000111615.shtml

(China.org.cn by Yan Pei, April 8, 2009)