China Renaissance unable to reach its chairman Bao Fan
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China Renaissance chairman Bao Fan has been absent from the office and other public venues for the last few days.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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NEW YORK – Mr Bao Fan, one of China’s most high-profile tech dealmakers over the past two decades, has not been in contact with his company.
China Renaissance said in a Thursday night filing in Hong Kong that the investment bank has been unable to contact Mr Fan, who is its chairman, chief executive officer and controlling shareholder.
Shares of China Renaissance dropped as much as 50 per cent after the announcement, hitting their all-time low of HK$5.
China Renaissance said its board is not aware of any information to indicate that Mr Bao’s unavailability may be related to the company’s business or operations and that it is running normally under the executive committee.
In corporate China, the phrase “out of contact” in many cases may mean a person is under investigation by the authorities or assisting with some governmental probes.
A China Renaissance spokesman in New York declined to comment about Mr Bao when reached by phone on Thursday, while calls to the company’s Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong offices were not answered outside normal business hours. The company’s media and investor relations department did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
Mr Bao has been absent from the office and other public venues for the last few days, Caixin reported, citing several unidentified people close to him. Mr Cong Lin, China Renaissance’s president, has been under investigation for months, the mainland news outlet said.
A former Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group banker, Mr Bao was an early investor in big names like Didi Global and Meituan, as well as a bookrunner on JD.com’s US$2 billion initial public offering (IPO) in the United States in 2014. His company was a top underwriter for Kuaishou Technology’s Hong Kong listing in 2021, the biggest Internet IPO since Uber Technologies’ debut in 2019.
China Renaissance had about 48.6 billion yuan (S$9.5 billion) under its investment management at the end of June 2022, according to its most recent interim report.
The stock has jumped 23 per cent this year in Hong Kong, and the firm has a market value of HK$5.68 billion (S$965.3 million). REUTERS, Bloomberg
