Hong Kong
Act Daily News
—
One of China’s high funding bankers has turn out to be unreachable, in response to his firm.
China Renaissance, an funding financial institution and personal fairness agency based mostly in Beijing, mentioned in a Thursday submitting to the Hong Kong inventory change that it “has been unable to contact” Bao Fan, its chairman and CEO.
Shares of the corporate plunged as a lot as 50% in Hong Kong on Friday following the news. The inventory closed down 28%.
“The board is not aware of any information that indicates that Mr. Bao’s unavailability is or might be related to the business and/or operations of the group,” the agency mentioned within the submitting.
Bao is called a veteran dealmaker in China’s tech business. He helped dealer the 2015 merger between two of the nation’s main meals supply providers, Meituan and Dianping. Today, the mixed firm’s “super app” platform is ubiquitous in China.
Bao began his funding banking profession within the late Nineteen Nineties at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse and later went on to function an adviser to the inventory exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
His workforce has additionally invested in US-listed Chinese electrical car makers Nio
(NIO) and Li Auto, and helped Chinese web giants Baidu
(BIDU) and JD.com
(JD) full their secondary listings in Hong Kong.
Bao didn’t instantly reply to messages from Act Daily News on WeChat on Friday, whereas China Renaissance hasn’t but responded to a request for remark.
The monetary providers agency just lately handled one other comparable disruption, in response to Caixin, a revered Chinese monetary news outlet. Chinese authorities detained Cong Lin, the corporate’s president, in September, it reported, citing unidentified sources.
Bao’s disappearance follows these of different high-profile business leaders in China, the place it’s not unusual for executives to out of the blue drop off the radar with little rationalization.
In 2020, actual property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang disappeared for a number of months after he allegedly spoke out towards Chinese chief Xi Jinping’s dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic. Ren was ultimately jailed for 18 years on corruption prices.
In 2017, insurance coverage large Anbang warned shareholders that its chairman, Wu Xiaohui, wouldn’t be capable of perform his duties after he was reportedly detained by authorities as a part of a authorities investigation. Anbang on the time cited “personal reasons” for his absence. Wu was ultimately jailed for 18 years,
Also in 2017, Xiao Jianhua, a tycoon who managed Tomorrow Holdings, was seized by Chinese safety brokers from his room on the Four Seasons resort in Hong Kong and brought to mainland China. He was sentenced in August 2022 to 13 years in jail.
Another outstanding case passed off in 2015, when Guo Guangchang, the billionaire dubbed “the Warren Buffett of China,” was reported as lacking by the conglomerate he ran. That group, Fosun, later confirmed that Guo was aiding authorities in an investigation.
Senior executives from dozens of Chinese firms additionally disappeared that yr. Some later returned to their positions, whereas others didn’t.
Source: www.cnn.com