2024-02-02 06:55:59
The Chinese banker Bao Fan, mysteriously disappeared almost a year ago before it was revealed that he was “cooperating in an investigation” by the country’s authorities, has resigned from his positions in the company of which he is founder for “health reasons”the company reported today.
In a statement sent to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange – where it is listed – the investment bank China Renaissance assures that Bao is leaving his positions this Friday – including president and CEO – “for health reasons and to spend more time in the matters of his family. The document states that “there is no further matter relating to his resignation that should be brought to the attention of shareholders” and, in it, the company’s board of directors “expresses its deep gratitude” to the banker, under whose leadership China Renaissance ” has grown, expanded, overcome many challenges and achieved significant milestones along the way.”
In the same statement, China Renaissance confirms that The current acting CEO, Xie Yijing, is confirmed in that position and also assumes the presidency of the board.
No trace of Bao
On February 16, 2023, the company reported Bao missingand ten days later he indicated that he had “become aware that Mr. Bao is currently collaborating with an investigation that are being carried out by some authorities of the People’s Republic of China”, without offering more details about it.
That second statement seemed to confirm the thesis offered by some media that pointed out that Bao’s situation was similar to those that occurred in 2015, when at least five executives from different companies disappeared in a similar way, among which the president of the Fosun conglomerate, Guo, stood out. Guangchang, which was later revealed to be collaborating with the authorities in an investigation.
The country’s business press speculated with the possibility that the event could be related to an investigation initiated by the authorities against Cong Lin, former president of China Renaissance, based on his years as a director of the country’s largest state bank, ICBC.
Bao, known for being the ‘architect’ of some of the largest mergers of technology companies in the country, would have tried move part of your fortuna from China and Hong Kong to Singapore, a territory where at the end of 2022 he tried to create a fund to manage his assets, according to the Financial Times newspaper. In August, about six months after his disappearance, China Renaissance said that Bao continued to “cooperate” with that investigation, again without offering any details about its nature or the whereabouts of its founder and president. At the time, the company simply stated that its operations remained “normal” under the supervision of its executive committee, adding that it would continue to “follow the development of the aforementioned matters” and make “further announcements when appropriate.”
The company’s shares were frozen at the end of March last year after falling more than 27% after Bao’s disappearance, which also made it impossible to publish an audited results account for the 2022 financial year.
Anti-corruption campaign
Some media pointed to the relationship between Bao’s case and an announcement made a few days after his disappearance by the powerful anti-corruption body of the Communist Party of China (CCP), which promised to strengthen its campaign against illicit conduct in the financial sector, which has so far resulted in the arrest and indictment of numerous officials from regulatory agencies and senior company executives. In addition, at the beginning of this year, that body announced that it would increase pressure and punishments against cases of corruption in several sectors, which again included the financial sector.
In recent weeks, Chinese authorities detained a second former president of the state financial conglomerate Everbright – his successor had been arrested months earlier – and a former vice president of the state-run China Development Bank, both accused of accepting bribes.
After coming to power in 2012, the current CCP general secretary and president of the country, Xi Jinping, began an anti-corruption campaign in which numerous senior Chinese officials have been convicted of accepting million-dollar bribes. Although this initiative, one of Xi’s star programs, has uncovered important cases of corruption within the CCP, some voices have suggested that it could also be used to end the political careers of some of his critics.
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