Moulin lays off 55 percent of Hong Kong staff

Moulin Global Eyecare Holdings said on Friday that provisional liquidators and management had laid off about 100 staff in Hong Kong and executive director Dicky Tong had resigned with effect from June 23.

Moulin is facing a winding-up petition by nearly 30 bank creditors led by HSBC Holdings Plc. The company said in a statement that the redundancies represented 55 percent of its Hong Kong-based work force.

The eyewear maker also confirmed that its chairman, chief executive officer and three other staff members had been arrested by Hong Kong police and later released on bail.

A source close to the investigation said the arrests were in connection with a HK$1.6 billion ($205 million) fraud probe by the Commercial Crime Bureau. That investigation, and investigations by provisional liquidators into apparent accounting irregularities at the firm, are continuing, the company added.

Moulin said its U.S. subsidiary Eye Care Centers America, Inc. has not filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and continues to operate normally. It also said some of its other manufacturing, distribution and retail businesses were still operating.

A Hong Kong court appointed the provisional liquidators in a last-ditch bid to save the firm.Between 20 and 30 parties have shown interest in buying Moulin's assets, Roderick Sutton, an executive director of Ferrier Hodgson, Moulin's provisional liquidators, told Reuters.

Sutton said a deadline for submission of bids would be set in a few days.

(Source: Reuters)