Media reports out this morning criticised the company for the “secret” subsidiary, despite details of the subsidiary being on record as part of a government submission in January.

“FMG believes that its multinational competitors have been backgrounding media on its Singapore investment company,” FMG chief financial officer Stephen Pearce said this afternoon.

“In doing so they are trying to falsely insinuate that FMG is contemplating certain behaviour by multinationals that was the subject of the Senate inquiry and remains under the scrutiny of the ATO.”

FMG admitted to having Singapore subsidiaries in January in a submission to the Senate inquiry on tax avoidance.

But this morning, the company said income earned by all subsidiaries was attributed back to Australia and applicable tax paid.

“The Singapore company referred to was established specifically as the entity by which Fortescue would invest in the China Beijing International Mining Exchange. It has undertaken no other activity,” Pearce said.

“Fortescue is proud of its record of not transferring profits overseas and paying its full share of tax and royalties to Australia.”

Singapore has attracted a number of major miners such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Glencore due to its low tax regime and incentives.

The Australian government is cracking down on “profit diversion tactics” and will specifically target 30 unnamed multinational companies.

BHP revealed its Singapore marketing arm earned profits of $US5.7 billion ($A7.4 billion) between 2006 and 2014 and paid $121,000 tax in Singapore and $A945 million tax in Australia.

Rio’s Singapore division made a $US790 million profit last year, which was subject to a tax rate of just 5%.

The Australian Tax Office is pursuing BHP and Glencore over tax bills relating to Singaporean subsidiaries.