Anwell Technologies Limited was a Hong Kong multinational

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

company. Founded in 2000, the company initially designed machines that mass-produced

optical disc An optical disc is a flat, usuallyNon-circular optical discs exist for fashion purposes; see shaped compact disc. disc-shaped object that stores information in the form of physical variations on its surface that can be read with the aid o ...

s, but later began manufacturing

thin-film solar cells Thin-film solar cells are a type of solar cell made by depositing one or more thin layers (thin films or TFs) of photovoltaic material onto a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are typically a few nanometers ( nm ...

and

organic light-emitting diode An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respon ...

s (OLEDs) as well. The company was listed on the

Singapore Exchange Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX Group) is a Singapore-based exchange conglomerate, operating Equity (finance), equity, fixed income, currency and commodity markets. It provides a range of listing, trading, clearing, settlement, depository and ...

in 2004, but delisted in 2019 as the company shut down its operations.

History

Anwell was founded in 2000 by chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Fan Kai Leung ( zh, s=范继良, p=Fàn Jì Liáng), known as Franky Fan, and five other engineering partners with initial capital of

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

100,000. In 2004, the company was listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Stock Exchange. In September 2009, Anwell produced its first

thin-film solar cell Thin-film solar cells are a type of solar cell made by depositing one or more thin layers (thin films or TFs) of photovoltaic material onto a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are typically a few nanometers (nan ...

at their production plant located in

Anyang Anyang ( zh, s=安阳, t=安陽; ) is a prefecture-level city in Henan, China. Geographical coordinates are 35° 41'~ 36° 21' north latitude and 113° 38'~ 114° 59' east longitude. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the eas ...

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

, China. The following month, Anwell's wholly owned subsidiary Sungen signed a memorandum of understanding with American energy company Solargen to supply solar panels for their

solar farm A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

projects. In 2011, Anwell received a total of RMB 800 million in funding from the municipal government of

Dongguan Dongguan,; pinyin: alternately romanized via Cantonese as Tungkun, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. An important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou t ...

for the construction of a second manufacturing base in the city, as well as RMB 700 million increase production capacity at its existing plant in Anyang. In February 2012, Anwell secured its first engineering, procurement, and construction contract for a solar power plant in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, in a deal worth US$25 million.

Legal issues and closure

In November 2017, Anwell's judicial managers RSM Corporate Advisory announced that Anwell's Chinese subsidiary, Dongguan Anwell Digital Machinery, as well as Anwell CEO Fan, executive director Wu Wai Kin (known as Ken Wu), and group financial controller Kwong Chi Kit (known as Victor Kwong) were found guilty of

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

by Chinese courts. Dongguan Anwell was ordered to pay a total of RMB 1.2 billion in fines and other payments; Fan was sentenced to life imprisonment and a seizure of personal assets worth up to RMB 5 million, while Wu and Kwong were fined RMB 4 million each and sentenced to 20 and 19 years' imprisonment, respectively. In March 2018, the

Singapore High Court The High Court of Singapore is the lower division of the Supreme Court of Singapore, the upper division being the Court of Appeal. The High Court consists of the chief justice and the judges of the High Court. Judicial Commissioners are oft ...

granted an application for the company to shut down its operations and begin the process of

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a Company (law), company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as :wikt:wind up#Noun, w ...

. The company applied to delist from the Singapore Exchange in January 2019.

References

External links

Official website
(archived 4 October 2017) {{Portal, Companies Companies formerly listed on the Singapore Exchange Thin-film cells Solar energy companies Thin-film cell manufacturers Photovoltaics manufacturers Engineering companies of Hong Kong Hong Kong brands