The billionaire founder of
Chinese investment bank China Renaissance, Bao Fan, has been missing for days
, the company revealed in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
As a consequence, his shares lost 28.2% of their value in just a few hours after the news broke.
"
The company has not been able 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 continue with normality," said China Renaissance in a document sent last night to the Hong Kong stock market.
According to sources familiar with the situation and cited 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 his 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 platforms from Ctrip and Qunar travel.
China Renaissance, the bank founded by Fan (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Caixin recalls that China Renaissance was already immersed in turbulence since its president, C
ong 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 who mainly worked at the country's largest state bank, ICBC.
A story that repeats itself
The disappearance of Bao, one of China's top technology investors, has
once again conjured up a history of Chinese executives suddenly disappearing
for periods of time without explanation.
According to Forbes magazine, at least
half a dozen billionaires in recent years have gone missing for periods after reports of clashes with the Communist Party.
In several cases, they were suspected of being involved in investigations of corruption, taxation or other misconduct.
Notable absences include Fosun Group founder Guo Guangchang, who has been called China's Warren Buffet, who disappeared for several days in 2015.
Chinese-Canadian businessman
Xiao Jianhua was also kidnapped in 2017. He had been one of the richest people in China
and was jailed last year for corruption.
In late 2020,
Alibaba founder Jack Ma
also disappeared from public view for three months, after making comments critical of market regulators.
He had planned to publicly list his digital payments firm Ant Financial, which likely would have made him the richest man in China.
Bao is seen as a titan in China's tech industry
, having executed 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.
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