CORRESP 1 filename1.htm China BAK Battery, Inc.: Correspondence - Filed by newsfilecorp.com

November 18, 2013

Jeanne Bennett
Division of Corporation Finance
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street, NE
Washington, DC 20549

  Re: China BAK Battery, Inc.
    Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2012
    Filed December 31, 2012
    Form 10-Q for the Quarterly Period Ended June 30, 2013
    Filed August 19, 2013
    File No. 001-32898

Dear Ms. Bennett:

On behalf of China BAK Battery, Inc. (the “Company”), we hereby submit the Company’s responses to the comments of the staff (the “Staff”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) (except for Comment #2), dated October 9, 2013, with respect to the above-referenced Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2012 (the “Form 10-K”) and the Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2013 (the “Form 10-Q”).

For the convenience of the Staff, a summary of the Staff’s comments is included and is followed by the corresponding response of the Company. References in this letter to “we,” “us” and “our” refer to the Company, and “you” and “your” refer to the Staff, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Form 10-Q for the Quarterly Period Ended June 30, 2013

Note 3. Trade Accounts Receivable, net, page F-14

1.

We note the information provided in response to prior comment 1. In future filings, beginning with your Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2013, please revise this note to provide a table with the same level of detail as the one provided in your response.

COMPANY RESPONSE: In response to the Staff’s comment, we will revise the disclosures in our future filings, beginning with our Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2013, to include a table with the same level of detail as the one provided in our response letter dated September 18, 2013 (prior comment 1).


Jeanne Bennett
November 18, 2013
Page 2 of 4

3.

Further, we derive from your year-to-date information for the six months ended March 31, 2013 that the bad debt expense for the quarter consisted of the return of products from customers of $6,097,786 and a credit to bad debt expense of $2,378,877. Please tell us why you credited bad debt expense for $2,378,877 in that quarter.

COMPANY RESPONSE: In response to the Staff’s comment, we would like to advise that in the response to prior comment 1 in our letter to you dated September 18, 2013, we erroneously netted the amount of recovery by cash of RMB16,187,860 (equivalent to US$2.6 million) against the gross provision. As such, provided below is a revised quarterly roll-forward of the allowance for doubtful debt amount for each quarter in fiscal 2013 as follows:

    Q1     Q2     Q3  
Fiscal 2013   12/31/2012     3/31/2013     6/30/2013  
          Revised     Revised  
    Note 3 of     Note 3 of     Note 3 of  
    Form 10-Q/A     Form 10-Q/A     Form 10-Q  
    filed on     filed on     filed on  
    August 23,     August 23,     August 19,  

 

  2013     2013     2013  

 

     

Beginning of fiscal 2013

  33,244,428     33,244,428     33,244,428  

(i) Gross provision for the period (year to date)

  6,339,031     6,567,903     11,620,823  

(ii) Recoveries by:

                 

       - Cash

  -     (2,607,749 )   (3,006,180 )

       - Others (recoveries by return of products from customers)

  -     (6,097,786 )   (14,462,196 )

Charged (credited) to the condensed consolidated statements of comprehensive income

  6,339,031     (2,137,632 )   (5,847,553 )

(iii) Write off

  -     -     -  

Foreign exchange adjustment

  308,641     424,882     742,809  

End of quarter

  39,892,100     31,531,678     28,139,684  

The above revision has no impact on the Company’s financial position, profit and loss or cash flows for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2013 and June 30, 2013.

2


Jeanne Bennett
November 18, 2013
Page 3 of 4

4.

We note the table you provided in response to prior comment 2. Please describe to us the transactions that resulted in the “other receivables” balances at June 30, 2013 and summarize for us the circumstances that led to you recording the provisions for losses related to these accounts in the nine months ended June 30, 2013 and the year ended September 30, 2012.

COMPANY RESPONSE: In response to the Staff’s comment, we provide the analysis of “other receivables” balances at June 30, 2013 as follows. A similar analysis has been presented in Note 5 of Form 10-Q filed on August 26, 2013.

    June 30, 2013  
          Allowance for        
    Gross     doubtful accounts     Net  
    US$     US$     US$  

Prepayments for raw materials and others

  3,037,354     (777,341 )   2,260,013  

Staff advances

  950,126     (49,664 )   900,462  

Prepaid operating expenses

  521,964           521,964  

Advance to an unrelated company

  239,604           239,604  

Advance to a related party

  250,520           250,520  

Value added taxes recoverable

  4,692,654           4,692,654  

Others

  1,461,027     (1,269,810 )   191,217  

Balance at June 30, 2013

  11,153,249     (2,096,815 )   9,056,434  

We provide below the circumstances that led to the recording the provisions for losses related to these accounts in the nine months ended June 30, 2013 and the year ended September 30, 2012.

          Year ended     Nine months  
          September     ended June 30,  
    Note     30, 2012     2013  

 

        US$     US$  

Allowance for doubtful accounts on other receivables, beginning of year/period

  (a)     694,587     1,305,329  

Other receivables provision charged for the year/period

           

       - Advances to employees who ceased to work with the Company for the year/period

      60,494     -  

       - Receivable from disposal of the Company’s assets

  (b)     541,490     -  

       - Advances to suppliers

  (c)     -     759,903  

Other receivables provision for the year/period

        601,984     759,903  

Foreign exchange adjustment

        8,758     31,583  

Allowance for doubtful accounts on other receivables, end of year/period

      1,305,329     2,096,815  

3


Jeanne Bennett
November 18, 2013
Page 4 of 4

(a)

The allowance for doubtful accounts on other receivables as of 1 October 2011 was made on miscellaneous receivables outstanding for over 1 year.

   
(b)

The impairment was recorded on a long outstanding receivable from an unrelated party from disposal of property, plant and equipment in fiscal 2011.

   
(c)

We discontinued purchases from certain suppliers which failed to meet our quality requirements. We impaired these long outstanding advances when the suppliers failed to pay us despite our repeated payment requests.

**************************************************

In connection with the Company’s response to the foregoing comments, the Company hereby acknowledges that

 

  • the Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in the filing;

       

     

  • Staff comments or changes to disclosure in response to Staff comments do not foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the filing; and

       

     

  • the Company may not assert Staff comments as a defense in any proceeding initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities laws of the United States.

    If you would like to discuss any of our responses to the Staff’s comments or if you would like to discuss any other matters, please contact Thomas M. Shoesmith at (650)-233-4553, of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, our outside counsel.

      Sincerely,
       
      CHINA BAK BATTERY, INC.
       
      By: /s/ Xiangqian Li                    
             Xiangqian Li
             Chief Executive Officer

    4