Fosun International chair Guo Guangchang is back in action, making an appearance at his conglomerate’s annual meeting in Shanghai after being detained by Chinese authorities last week. It is understood he was seized by police.
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There was no reference made to the probe or his absence.
Fosun Group owns Club Mediterranee and a stake in Cirque du Soleil, as well as interests in insurance, real estate, pharmaceutical and commodities.
The Shanghai court said that Wang Zongnan had abused his power and pursued profit with Fosun Group, and that Guo had sold two villas to Wang’s parents for below their market price – allegations denied by Guo.
Last week, the Post had cited an unnamed well-connected businessman as saying that Guo might be questioned about his connection with two officials who were placed under investigation by China’s anti-graft watchdog.
He said in the future Fosun will rely more heavily on China, and underlined that its industrial structure should be able to gain strength from that, and that it will also make continued effort to build its global operations.
“While news of missing top executives are unlikely to affect the company’s operations in the short term, it may affect how investors view the company’s performance in the long run”, Bernard Aw, market strategist at spread betting firm IG, said in a telephone interview.
Fosun International (0656) dropped 9.45 percent to HK$12.08 and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (2196) slid 12.05 percent to HK$21.90.
Statements filed by the Fosun companies Friday night revealed that Guo, 48, was “assisting in investigations carried out by mainland judiciary authorities”, without providing more details about his role in the probes. Guo also attended a company meeting on Monday.
He added that Fosun had cash and assets available for sale totaling of Rmb97 billion ($15 billion) and an insurance float of Rmb150 billion ($23 billion) as of June 30, when its net debt ratio was 50.7%.
Based on data provided by Dealogic, Fosun now has about seven pending outbound transactions worth at least $3.27 billion (one deal’s value hasn’t been disclosed), including its bid for German private bank BHF Kleinwort Benson and Hauck & Aufhaeuser Privatbankiers.
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Liang told the meeting he considered a large number of stocks related to Fosun International remained undervalued and that there was a possibility the management team would increase their own shareholdings.
