Everything is fine according to the company building a factory in Debrecen, whose founders were put under house arrest in China
The work related to the production plant in Debrecen “continues at the usual pace”, announced on Friday evening the Chinese battery film factory builder Semcorp, whose founding owners were recently placed under house arrest in China. The company also announced that the test plant can be expected to start already in the first quarter.
As 24.hu wrote on Thursday, for the billionaire brothers and sisters, Paul Xiaoming Leeto and Tony Xiaohua Liwas raided by the Chinese authorities at the end of last year. They are suspected of secretly wanting to take their own capital abroad. No news had previously appeared in Hungary about the investigation taking place in China, but the effects of the measures had already been investigated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The press department of the ministry did not answer our questions about the consequences of the investigation in Hungary, but it did say that according to the information received from the company, there are no interruptions in the construction in Debrecen.
James ShihSEMCORP’s Vice President of Global Projects made the following statement:
As you made public last November, our business activities and plans within the group are proceeding as usual. This includes our investment in Debrecen, where construction and installation of equipment continues according to our plan. We are looking forward to starting trial production later this year.
SEMCORP launched its €183 million project in November 2020, and on September 13, 2021, construction began on its first lithium-ion battery film manufacturing plant outside of China. The company says in its announcement that the investment will create more than four hundred and forty jobs in Debrecen and its surroundings.
As for the accusations concerning the company’s founding brothers: according to the news, 1.4 billion dollars, or about 520 billion forints at the current exchange rate, were channeled from the Semcorp Group. The total assets of the two brothers and their families are estimated at more than 10 billion dollars, i.e. HUF 3,700 billion, which makes them the richest entrepreneurs in the southern province of Yunnan, but at the national level, this is not enough to be included in the top 100 of the richest Chinese billionaires.
You can find out more about the details of the case here: