Carpenter Tan (0837): what not to do with surplus cash | Preventing cash shells
Company announcement, 12-Jul-2017
The comb maker says it's been sitting on surplus cash since its 2009 IPO, so rather than return the money to shareholders, it is buying wealth management products from Bank of Jiangsu. Net cash was 69% of net assets at 31-Dec-2016, so it meets our definition of a cash shell (exceeding 50%) and the excess (or more) should be paid out unless minority shareholders veto the payout, as proposed in our 2016 article "Preventing cash shells".

Carpenter Tan (0837) punts CNY86.5m on WMPs
Company announcement, 27-Jul-2016
The comb-maker says it has "idle funds" generated from operations and raised in the 2009 IPO. Comment: idle funds should be returned by special dividend, not hoarded and punted. The capital is guaranteed by CCB but the 3% "expected returns" are not and presumably depend on the performance of the underlying investments, net of fees. Investors don't need listed companies to make investments for them - they can do that themselves. Some 68% of the firm's net assets are in cash at 31-Dec-2015.