Chinese billionaire Bao Fan (包凡) is “cooperating in an investigation” by authorities, his company said, almost two weeks after his disappearance sparked fears of a renewed crackdown on the nation’s financial services industry.
The China Renaissance Holdings Ltd (華興資本) chairman rose to fame as a key player in the emergence of some of the nation’s largest tech giants, supervising blockbuster initial public offerings (IPOs) and a landmark merger between major ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing (滴滴出行) and its top competitor at the time, Kuaidi Dache (快的打車).
His Hong Kong-listed firm said in a filing on Sunday that it was “aware that Mr Bao is currently cooperating in an investigation being carried out by certain authorities” in mainland China.
Photo: Reuters
“The company will duly cooperate and assist with any lawful request from the relevant PRC authorities, if and when made,” it added, referring to the country by its official name, the People’s Republic of China.
The firm did not provide details about the nature of the investigation, and yesterday said it had no additional comment.
“The company will make further announcement as and when appropriate,” a spokesperson said.
Shares in the company slumped as much as 50 percent at one point following the Feb. 16 announcement that Bao was missing, before clawing back to sit at about 30 percent down.
While yet to recover from that slump, the firm yesterday was up 2.1 percent in afternoon trading.
China Renaissance has become a global financial institution since its founding in 2005, with more than 700 employees and offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and New York.
The group has supervised the IPOs of several domestic tech giants, including leading e-commerce firm JD.com Inc (京東), as well as the 2015 merger between two of the country’s top ride-hailing apps.
That same year, Bao appeared on Bloomberg Market’s 50 Most Influential list, with the financial newswire writing the “fast-talking” banker had the ability to “arrange practically anything in China’s vibrant tech scene.”
However, an aggressive crackdown by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on alleged corruption has since clipped the wings of many of China’s leading financiers and major tech companies.
According to financial news outlet Caixin, China Renaissance president Cong Lin (叢林) was taken into custody in September last year as authorities launched a probe into his work at the financial leasing unit of the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (中國工商銀行).
In 2017, Chinese-Canadian businessman Xiao Jianhua (肖建華) was arrested by Chinese authorities, receiving a 13-year jail sentence for corruption in August last year.
Known to hold close ties to top Chinese Communist Party leaders, the billionaire was reportedly abducted from his Hong Kong hotel room by plainclothes police officers from Beijing.
At the time of his arrest, Xiao was one of China’s richest men, with an estimated fortune of US$6 billion.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) founder Jack Ma (馬雲) has also seen his fortune fall by about half to an estimated US$25 billion after regulators pulled the plug on what would have been the world’s biggest-ever IPO — that of fintech giant Ant Group Co (螞蟻集團).
A reshuffle of Ant’s shareholding structure announced last month saw Ma, who has since receded from public view, cede control of the megafirm he founded in 2014.
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