- Joel Guenteau, Fan Wang, and Francis Mao
- BBC News
One of China’s most prominent banking billionaires, Bao Fan, has disappeared, according to the company he owned.
China Renaissance Holdings said in a market update published Thursday that Bao Fan, the company’s chief executive, had been unreachable in recent days.
Bao is a prominent dealbroker in China whose client list includes two of the most prominent technology companies, DiDi and Meituan.
His company’s announcement renewed fears of a potential stalking campaign from Beijing for figures in the financial and technical fields.
Shares of the investment company fell on Friday, after it informed shareholders that it had been “unable to communicate with Bao Fan”.
The company’s board of directors added that it was not aware of “any information indicating that Bao’s unavailability is, or may be, related to the group’s activity or operations.”
When asked for further comment, China Renaissance referred the BBC to its complaint to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The company did not specify how long Mr. Bao had been missing. The Chinese economic news agency, Qixin, quoted sources as saying that the staff had not been able to contact him for two days.
The economic news agency also reported that the company’s chairman, Kong Lin, was detained by authorities last September because of his previous work at the state-owned ICBC bank.
It appears that China Renaissance has not commented on Mr. Kong’s situation. He is no longer listed as CEO on the company’s website or in its most recent interim report.
The disappearance of Bao, one of China’s most prominent technology investors, brought to mind a history of sudden disappearances of Chinese executives for periods of time without explanation.
According to Forbes magazine, at least six billionaires have disappeared for periods over the past few years after disagreements with the Communist Party.
In many cases they were suspected of corruption, tax investigations or misconduct.
Notable absences include those of Fosun Group founder Jiu Guangchang, billed as China’s Warren Buffett, who disappeared for several days in 2015.
Chinese-Canadian businessman Xiao Jianhua also disappeared in 2017 for a while. He was one of the richest people in China and was jailed last year on corruption charges.
In late 2020, the founder of Alibaba, “Jack Ma”, disappeared from sight for three months. He was set to take his digital payments company Ant Financial public – which would likely make him the richest man in China.
Bao is seen as a giant in China’s tech industry, having successfully executed many of the business deals that made up his consumer Internet business. He founded China Renaissance in 2005 after working in banking at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.
His company was responsible for signing high-profile deals including Tencent’s strategic investment in JD.com, the mergers of Didi and Koedi, advertising sites 58.com and Ganji, and food delivery giants Meituan. and “Dianpeng”.
China Renaissance also advised on the initial public offerings of e-commerce sites JD.com and Quachu, as well as the NYSE listing of Didi in 2021.
Bao wrote, in a 2018 article, that his company has “cross paths” with 70 percent of Internet companies known to the Chinese public.
