In re LDK Solar Securities Litigation

255 F.R.D. 519, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7608, 2009 WL 196396
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJanuary 28, 2009
DocketNo. C 07-05182 WHA
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 255 F.R.D. 519 (In re LDK Solar Securities Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re LDK Solar Securities Litigation, 255 F.R.D. 519, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7608, 2009 WL 196396 (N.D. Cal. 2009).

Opinion

ORDER RE MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION

WILLIAM ALSUP, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff filed a putative class action against LDK Solar Company, two of its subsidiaries and several of its officers and directors claiming violations of the Securities Exchange Act. Plaintiff alleges that defendants made material misrepresentations and omissions relating to LDK’s reported inventory of polysilicon, an important raw material for the production of solar wafers. Following the denial of motions to dismiss filed by the domestic and foreign defendants, respectively, plaintiff now moves for class certification. For the reasons stated below, this order finds class certification appropriate under Rule 23. The motion for class certification is Granted.

STATEMENT

The circumstances of this ease have been set forth in previous orders and need not be repeated in detail (Dkt.Nos.132, 85). Plaintiff filed a putative class action on behalf of investors who purchased LDK securities between June 1, 2007, and October 7, 2007. Investor Shahpour Javidzad was appointed lead plaintiff. Defendants include LDK Solar Co., a manufacturer of multicrystalline solar wafers (a component of solar cells), LDK Solar USA, Inc., its U.S. subsidiary, Jiangxi LDK Solar, a Chinese subsidiary, and several of LDK’s officers and directors.

Plaintiff contends that defendants doctored LDK’s IPO prospectus and financial statements and made other false or misleading public statements regarding the company’s financial health. The allegations center around LDK’s internal controls and accounting for its key input, polysilicon. Plaintiff avers that defendants significantly overstated the value of its inventory of polysilicon, an important material used in wafer manufacturing which constitutes some 80% of LDK’s production costs, thus significantly overstat[523]*523ing the company’s financial performance and prospects. When these circumstances came to light in October 2007, LDK’s stock fell by nearly 50%.

The complaint alleges that defendants deceived investors in two general respects. It first claims that LDK counted as inventory a significant quantity of polysilicon that did not in fact exist. The second involved the manner in which LDK obtained, and accounted for, its polysilicon. Polysilicon can be obtained in two ways: it can be purchased in its raw form, or it can be extracted from scrap materials. LDK regularly utilized the latter means which is considerably cheaper. Scrap materials, however, may have impurities that render them of limited usability or worthless. LDK, therefore, sorted through already-purchased scrap materials to identify which materials could or could not be used. After purchasing any scrap materials, LDK accounted for them as current inventory and valued them at their acquisition cost. Once LDK sorted through the scrap and found worthless pieces, however, it was supposed to reduce the value of the inventory to reflect the “market” value of the scrap materials in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”). Instead, LDK allegedly continued to value the worthless scrap materials at cost rather than at “market” value.

In February 2007, LDK’s lead auditor, KPMG, “warned the Company’s board of directors that LDK’s inventory accounting was inadequate. KPMG also identified a ‘significant deficiency’ in LDK’s internal controls.” In response, LDK hired Charley Situ in mid-March specifically “to deal with the inventory and other accounting issues KPMG had identified” (Compl.¶¶ 69-70).

LDK went public on June 1, 2007, via an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. LDK’s offering materials allegedly contained various material misrepresentations or omissions related to the above-described scheme.

In late September 2007, Controller Situ resigned due to concerns over LDK’s ae-counting practices. In a September 2007 email, Controller Situ wrote, “I am sure now [that assuring the accuracy of financial data and acting as the interface with KPMG] is an unachievable task for any professional so I hereby reiterate that I have no choice but to quit the job in order to keep away from any potential securities fraud, as well as many other non-compliances or violations” (Compl.¶ 65).1

On October 3, 2007, Piper Jaffray published a research note indicating that LDK’s financial controller had left the company. The research note stated that “[w]e are also aware of the former controller’s allegations of poor financial controls and ... [an] inventory discrepancy.” As a result of these and other developments, LDK’s shares closed at $51.65 on October 3, which represented a 24.4% drop from the previous day’s close of $68.31 (Compl.¶ 78).

LDK announced in a Form 6-K, dated October 4, 2007, that Situ had been “terminated for cause on September 25, 2007.” As stated, the complaint avers that Situ actually resigned. The Form 6-K further stated, “LDK’s management team and board of directors formed an internal committee to investigate the allegations and conduct an immediate physical inventory of LDK’s polysilicon materials. The management team found no material discrepancies as compared to LDK’s financial statements. The management team believes that these allegations have no merit. Additionally, the Audit Committee has asked an independent auditing firm to conduct a separate, independent engagement on LDK’s inventory.”

On October 8, 2007, Barron’s published an article describing Controller Situ’s allegations in greater detail. Among other things, the article said that the company may have overstated its inventory by up to $92 million. It also cited a second, unidentified source who confirmed that LDK had serious problems with the quality of its polysilicon inventory. That day, LDK’s shares closed at $37.50, which was down 26.4% from the pre[524]*524vious trading day’s close of $50.95. The price of LDK stock had declined 45.1% since the day before the October 3 disclosure (Compl.¶¶ 78-81).

In December 2007, LDK’s audit committee announced its conclusions. Another Form 6-K, dated December 17, 2007, stated that there were “no material errors in the Company’s stated silicon inventory quantities as of August 31st, 2007 ... and Mr. Situ’s allegations of an inventory discrepancy were incorrect because he had not taken into account all locations in which the Company stored its silicon feedstock.” The audit committee consisted of two outside directors, and the investigation was conducted by outside independent accountants and the audit committee’s independent counsel, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

After the results of the internal investigation had been announced, LDK issued its third-quarter financial statements for 2007 on December 20, 2007. There were no restatements. On February 25, 2008, LDK issued its fourth-quarter financial statements for 2007 without any restatements.

On March 31, 2008, the accounting firm KPMG issued an audit opinion on the consolidated financial statements for December 31, 2006, and 2007. The opinion concluded, “In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material aspects, the financial position of the Group as of December 31, 2006 and 2007, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the period from July 5, 2005 (date of inception) to December 31, 2005 and the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2007, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles” (Req. Jud. Not. Exh. S at F-2).

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Bluebook (online)
255 F.R.D. 519, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7608, 2009 WL 196396, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ldk-solar-securities-litigation-cand-2009.