Chinese timber supplier Superb Summit International Group has described comments by independent research firm Muddy Waters last November that questioned its accounts as "misleading" without providing further clarification.

Superb Summit's comment, issued in a statement late on Tuesday, was the Hong Kong-listed company's first official reaction to a critical Muddy Waters research note issued on Nov. 20. The company, whose shares have been suspended since then, said it would publish a clarification "in due course".

In its Tuesday statement, Superb Summit said the Muddy Waters report "contained misleading statements and fabricated contents to asperse the company and its subsidiaries." Worth about $1.5 billion by market value, Superb Summit has its operations in mainland China.

The research firm questioned the timber company's balance sheet and the value of assets it owns in its November report. Its founder, Carson Block, is a short-seller who has exposed accounting problems at a slew of Chinese firms.

Muddy Waters' Block did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on the Superb Summit reaction.

Questions over accounting at several other Chinese-listed companies in the past year have left clouds over investing in Chinese stocks at a time when Beijing is keen to lure investors through a recently created trade link between Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Before last November's suspension, Superb Summit's shares had nearly quadrupled in value over a period 12 months compared with a rise of 5.8 percent in Hong Kong's main Hang Seng Index, Thomson Reuters data show.

The bulk of that rally occurred in the run-up to Superb Summit's acquisition of an 80 percent stake in a Chinese coal liquefaction company, Beijing Jin Fe Te, in May 2014. In its report, Muddy Waters challenged the value of that asset.