China Renaissance Holdings stated Sunday that its chief govt, Bao Fan, a distinguished funding banker in China, was cooperating with a authorities investigation, weeks after the corporate had introduced it was unable to contact him.

In a submitting with the Hong Kong Inventory Change, the corporate stated that its board had “develop into conscious that Mr. Bao is at the moment cooperating in an investigation being carried out by sure authorities within the Individuals’s Republic of China.”

The corporate stated its operations had been persevering with usually. It didn’t say the place Mr. Bao was or determine the matter during which he’s supposedly cooperating. Chinese language media has reported that the federal government referred to as on Mr. Bao to help in an investigation associated to a former China Renaissance govt.

The most recent information adopted the firm’s disclosure on Feb. 16 that it had been “unable to contact” Mr. Bao. The announcement despatched the corporate’s inventory value plunging and the inventory has not totally recovered.

The disappearance of Mr. Bao, a significant participant within the progress of China’s tech sector, raised new issues that Beijing might once more be concentrating on Chinese language corporations and the executives who run them. Beneath the management of Xi Jinping, the Chinese language authorities has been exerting rising management over the nation’s economic system and companies.

The Chinese language authorities briefly detained Guo Guangchang, one of many nation’s wealthiest folks, in 2015, and two years later arrested the Chinese language-born billionaire Xiao Jianhua from his house in Hong Kong. Alibaba Group’s founder, Jack Ma, additionally disappeared from public life for a time after he criticized Chinese language regulators in 2020.

Mr. Bao is a towering determine in China’s tech sector. He labored at Morgan Stanley and Credit score Suisse earlier than founding China Renaissance in 2004. He grew to become an early deal maker for Chinese language web corporations, like Alibaba and Tencent, which soared because the nation’s economic system opened up.

In recent times, Mr. Bao had adjusted his method as Mr. Xi tightened his grip over the economic system, echoing the Chinese language chief’s rhetoric and dealing with a division of a state-owned financial institution.