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Australia implicates systems of China's COFCO of wheat futures adjustment

Australia's business watchdog has implicated two regional subsidiaries of Chinese food giant COFCO Corp of manipulating the price of domestic wheat futures contracts.

In a court filing late on Wednesday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) stated a staff member of COFCO International Australia placed an order to sell Eastern Australia Wheat Futures contracts below market value just before the close of trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). 34 times in 2022 in an effort to influence the settlement price. of the agreement.

Another local COFCO unit, COFCO Resources, stood to benefit. because it held a short position in the same futures agreements,. the federal civil court filing stated. A brief futures position. implies an investor has actually sold a futures contract and will profit by. redeeming futures at a lower price in a bet the market for the. commodity will decline.

The majority of ASIC's regulatory actions recently have. targeted domestic Australian business. This is the first time. that it has brought an action against systems of China's COFCO. Corp, which is owned by the Chinese federal government and is among. China's largest food and grain traders.

The offenders' conduct ... weakened or had the capacity. to weaken the integrity of, and self-confidence in, both the ASX. 24 market for (Eastern Australia wheat) contracts, and. Australian commodity derivatives markets more broadly, ASIC. stated in the court filing.

COFCO's actions might have also detrimentally impacted other. participants in the wheat futures market by making them accountable. for margin payments on their agreements that were larger than. they ought to have been, the filing said.

A COFCO International spokesperson in Geneva said in an. emailed reaction that the business does not discuss continuous. court procedures.

COFCO's Australian workplace and legal representative did not instantly. reply to ask for remark.

Nicholas McGaw, the COFCO wheat trader named as putting the. sell orders at the centre of the claim, did not respond to. e-mails or LinkedIn messages seeking remark.

In its court filing, ASIC said McGaw discussed his practice. of selling futures below the greatest possible cost in an email. to his trading account broker JP Morgan Securities.

( COFCO International) was safeguarding its brief position. from another celebration bidding up the close, the e-mail stated,. according to the ASIC filing.

JPMorgan declined to comment when called .

ASIC said it was seeking undefined fines and statements. of misbehavior.

COFCO International, the overseas trading arm of COFCO. group, is among the world's biggest farming commodity. merchants, selling nearly 122 million metric tons of products last. year for $50.1 billion in profits.

COFCO Resources belongs to COFCO International.

(source: Reuters)