Short sellers and analysts are increasingly turning their attention to Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong in the hunt for companies whose poor accounting practices or worse could yield profits for those able to expose them.
Muddy Waters and other China-focused research firms are among those looking at Hong Kong after a string of attacks on US-listed Chinese companies, many of which proved profitable for the short sellers when companies such as Sino-Forest succumbed to accounting scandals.
Paul Gillis, an accounting professor at Peking University, said analysts and short sellers are more focused on Hong Kong and have got a lot smarter about what to look for in terms of accounting weaknesses.