China Renaissance CEO Bao Fan goes lacking

Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

One in every of China’s high funding bankers has turn into unreachable, in line with his firm.

China Renaissance, an funding financial institution and personal fairness agency primarily based in Beijing, mentioned 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% in Hong Kong on Friday following the information. The inventory final traded 29% decrease.

“The board will not be conscious of any data that signifies that Mr. Bao’s unavailability is or could be associated to the enterprise and/or operations of the group,” the agency mentioned within the submitting.

Bao is called a veteran dealmaker in China’s tech trade. He helped dealer the 2015 merger between two of the nation’s main meals supply companies, Meituan and Dianping. At present, the mixed firm’s “tremendous app” platform is ubiquitous in China.

Bao began his funding banking profession within the late Nineties at Morgan Stanley and Credit score 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 language electrical car makers Nio

(NIO) and Li Auto, and helped Chinese language web giants Baidu

(BIDU) and JD.com

(JD) full their secondary listings in Hong Kong.

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 comparable disruption, in line with Caixin, a revered Chinese language monetary information outlet. Chinese language authorities detained Cong Lin, the corporate’s president, in September, it reported, citing unidentified sources.

Bao’s disappearance follows these of different high-profile enterprise leaders in China, the place it will not be unusual for executives to all of the 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 language chief Xi Jinping’s dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic. Ren was ultimately jailed for 18 years on corruption expenses.

In 2017, insurance coverage big Anbang warned shareholders that its chairman, Wu Xiaohui, wouldn’t 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 “private causes” for his absence. Wu was ultimately jailed for 18 years,

Additionally in 2017, Xiao Jianhua, a tycoon who managed Tomorrow Holdings, was seized by Chinese language safety brokers from his room on the 4 Seasons lodge in Hong Kong and brought to mainland China. He was sentenced in August 2022 to 13 years in jail.

One other outstanding case occurred 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 language corporations additionally disappeared that yr. Some later returned to their positions, whereas others didn’t.

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