THE mystery has deepened over a five-month delay in the disclosure of a significant share sale by a substantial shareholder of China Hongxing Sports.

The sportswear company's chief executive and executive director, Mr Wu Rongzhao, said on Monday that investigations into the delay indicated that China Hongxing did not receive any notification from major shareholder JF Asset Management (Singapore) that it had reduced its holding in the company.

However, this is at odds with a statement last week from JPMorgan Asset Management, which now owns JF.

It said it had faxed timely notifications to China Hongxing when it reduced its holding from 9.25 per cent to 4.08 per cent between Jan 8 and Feb 27 this year.

But China Hongxing reported these significant transactions in a one-page statement only on Aug 6.

The firm's late disclosure that JF had pared its stake in China Hongxing after selling 126.5 million shares in the company came to light after a series of reports by The Straits Times recently.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) then said it was looking into the delay and would take appropriate action where necessary.

Mr Wu said in a statement to the SGX yesterday that he had spoken to the people responsible for receiving such notifications and those with access to the company's fax machines.

Based on the responses, 'none of the relevant staff have received any of the fax notifications', he said.

China Hongxing is thus unable to verify if the fax notifications were successfully transmitted previously, even though it was noted that JF had faxed transmission confirmations, he said.

The company was also not able to retrieve any transmission records for the relevant dates, given that this was some time ago, said Mr Wu.