Top Chinese banker ‘co-operating’ with investigation by state authorities

China Renaissance Holdings, the investment bank that brokered some of China’s biggest technology mergers, has said its founder Bao Fan is co-operating with an investigation by the Chinese authorities. The statement was the first time the bank gave an explanation for Bao’s disappearance since he was reported missing more than a week ago.

“The company has been trying to reach Bao and ascertain his status,” the Beijing-based company said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

“The board has become aware that Bao is currently co-operating in an investigation being carried out by certain authorities in China.”

China Renaissance said its business and operations were normal but news of Mr Bao’s disappearance has seen the company’s share price plunge amid fears that it is linked to an investigation of some of its deals. It has also fuelled speculation of increased government scrutiny of China’s $60 trillion financial sector in the wake of an anti-corruption investigation launched in 2021.

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Media reports have suggested that Mr Bao’s disappearance is linked to an investigation into Cong Lin, China Renaissance’s former president. Mr Bao is the latest in a succession of senior Chinese executives to go missing without explanation in recent years and it follows a regulatory crackdown on the country’s technology sector.

Guo Guancheng, chairman of Fosun, one of China’s biggest privately-owned conglomerates, was one of five top executives to go missing in 2015 alone, although he reappeared later. Financier Xiao Jianhua, who was taken away from Hong Kong by Chinese authorities in 2017, was sentenced last year to 13 years in prison for a number of offences including illegally obtaining public deposits and bribery.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma did not go missing but he withdrew from the public stage in November 2020 and his company Ant said this year that he was ceding control of it. Mr Ma’s fall has had a chilling impact on the technology sector in China, amid fears that any business figure who rises too high is vulnerable to targeting by the authorities.

Mr Bao, who founded China Renaissance in 2005, helped to broker mergers involving ride-hailing company Didi, food delivery giant Meituan and travel firm Trip.com. He was involved in Kuaishou Technology’s listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2021, the biggest technology IPO since Uber’s two years earlier.

The Chinese authorities have not commented on Mr Bao.

Shares of China Renaissance Holdings rose as much as 9 per cent on the update of their missing chairman, before trimming those gains to 3.4 per cent.