China Renaissance, an funding financial institution and personal fairness agency based mostly in Beijing, stated in a Thursday submitting to the Hong Kong inventory trade that it “has been unable to contact” Bao Fan, its chairman and CEO.
Shares of the corporate plunged as a lot as 50 per cent in Hong Kong on Friday following the news. The inventory closed down 28 per cent.
“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 stated within the submitting.
Bao is named a veteran dealmaker in China’s tech business. He helped dealer the 2015 merger between two of the nation’s main meals supply companies, 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 automobile makers Nio and Li Auto, and helped Chinese web giants Baidu and JD.com full their secondary listings in Hong Kong.
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Bao didn’t instantly reply to messages from CNN on WeChat on Friday, whereas China Renaissance hasn’t but responded to a request for remark.
The monetary companies agency not too long ago handled one other related disruption, in keeping with Caixin, a revered Chinese monetary news outlet. Chinese authorities detained Cong Lin, the corporate’s president, in September, it reported, citing unidentified sources.
China has a historical past of detaining execs
Bao’s disappearance follows these of different high-profile business leaders in China, the place it’s not unusual for executives to all of a sudden 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 finally jailed for 18 years on corruption expenses.
In 2017, insurance coverage big Anbang warned shareholders that its chairman, Wu Xiaohui, would not have the ability to 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 finally 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 distinguished case happened 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 helping authorities in an investigation.
Senior executives from dozens of Chinese firms additionally disappeared that 12 months. Some later returned to their positions, whereas others didn’t.
Source: www.9news.com.au
