Vibrant Group suspects fire in China was deliberate act to destroy Blackgold's accounts

A MOTOR vehicle transporting certain accounting records of a subsidiary caught fire near a coal mine in China on Aug 9, logistics firm Vibrant Group said on Wednesday night.

The fire took place about a month after the group announced that its auditors have found accounting irregularities in certain units of wholly owned subsidiary Blackgold International Holdings, which Vibrant acquired a year ago. Blackgold is a coal producer that had been listed in Australia.

Blackgold has reported the fire to the local police in Fengjie, Chongqing as a suspected deliberate act to destroy the records. Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing and the extent of damage to the records remains unknown pending the outcome of the investigations, Vibrant said.

The vehicle was taking the records of Chongqing Heijin Industrial, a Blackgold unit, to Vibrant's new office in the city of Chongqing when it caught fire.

Meanwhile, computers used by the Heijin group as well as its remaining accounting records have been transported to the Vibrant Chongqing office. The coal trading operations of the Heijin group have been suspended since July 20 pending the outcome of a special audit.

Vibrant said it will ascertain the effects of the fire on the special audit and the audit of the group's consolidated financial statements for the year ended April 30.

Vibrant shares resume trading on Thursday after being halted since Monday.