The billionaire founder of Chinese investment bank China Renaissance, Bao Fan, has been missing for days, the company revealed in a filing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As a result, its shares lost 28.2% of their value within hours of the news breaking.
“The company was unable to contact Mr. Bao Fan (…). The board is not aware of any information indicating that Mr. Bao’s unavailability is or may be related to the group’s business or operations, which are continuing as normal,” China Renaissance said in a filing sent to the Hong Stock Exchange last night. Kong.
According to sources close to the situation and quoted by the Caixin economic news portal, Bao has not come to his office or been seen in public for days.
The banker is well known in the country for its participation in important operations in the technology sector such as the mergers of Didi (known as the ‘Chinese Uber’) with Kuaidi, that of the food delivery giants Meituan and Dianping or the travel platforms Ctrip and Qunar.
Caixin recalls that the China Renaissance was already plunged into turbulence since its president, CNgo Lin, was arrested by the Chinese authorities in September 2022.
In fact, according to the economic media Yicai, company sources speculate that Bao’s disappearance “has something to do” with the situation of Cong, hired in 2020 by the founder of China Renaissance after a long career in the United States who worked mainly at the country’s largest state-owned bank, ICBC.
A story that repeats itself
The disappearance of Bao, one of China’s top tech investors, has once again evoked a story of Chinese executives disappearing suddenly for unexplained periods of time.
According to Forbes magazine, at least Half a dozen billionaires have gone missing for periods in recent years after reports of clashes with the Communist Party.
In several cases, they have been suspected of being involved in investigations into corruption, taxation or other wrongful conduct.
Notable absences include Fosun Group founder Guo Guangchang, who has been called China’s Warren Buffet, who disappeared for several days in 2015.
The Sino-Canadian entrepreneur Xiao Jianhua was also kidnapped in 2017. He was one of the richest people in China. and last year he was jailed for corruption.
At the end of 2020, Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, which also disappeared from public view for three months, after making comments critical of market regulators. He planned to publicly list his digital payments company Ant Financial, which would likely make him the richest man in China.
Bao is seen as a titan in China’s tech industry, having performed many of the trades that have shaped its online consumer economy. He founded China Renaissance in 2005 after a banking career at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.