Yicai Global: Chinese semiconductor materials supplier Darbond may be involved in anti-graft probe into the country’s largest state-owned chip fund

Darbond Technology(德邦科技), a listed manufacturer and distributor of advanced materials, may be the latest Chinese firm involved in an investigation by the government's anti-corruption department into executives of the company managing China's largest state-owned chip fund, reported Yicai Global on December 1.

Xie Haihua, chairman and legal representative of Darbond based in eastern China’s Shandong Province, cannot fulfill his duties until he finishes assisting in the supervisory organs' investigation over personal matters, company announced on November 29.

Yicai Global said the probe may be related to the recent anti-graft storm involving entities connected to the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as Big Fund, which is Darbond's largest shareholder.

Du Yang, former director of the Big Fund's manager Sino IC Capital, Yang Zhengfan, deputy general manager of the No. 3 investment division, and Liu Yang, ex-general manager of the No. 2 investment division, were put under investigation for suspected severe violations of party discipline and related law, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced in August. Du and Yang were Darbond's external board directors, according to Yicai Global.

Darbond debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on September 23 this year. After Darbond's listing, the Big Fund reduced its stake to 18.7 percent from nearly 25 percent, remaining the company's largest shareholder.

China has intensified efforts to investigate corruption in the domestic IC industry, including the Big Fund, since July. Six executives related to the fund have been probed since then. Lu Jun, former chief of the Big Fund and ex-deputy director of the management division of China Development Bank's CDB Development Fund, and Ding Wenwu, ex-general manager at the Big Fund, were among them.

Sino IC Capital was the sole manager of the Big Fund's first phase, which was set up in September 2014 with assets of RMB138.7 billion ($19.6 billion), and one of the managers of its second phase, which started in October 2019 with a scale of RMB204.2 billion($29 billion), according to Yicai Global.