If Guo is under investigation, that suggests authorities are extending scrutiny beyond state-owned enterprises, increasing uncertainty for investors, said Ronald Wan, CEO of investment banking at Partners Capital International in Hong Kong.
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Guo, 48, is one of China’s richest men.
Fosun has been unable to reach Mr Guo since midday on Thursday, according to online financial magazine Caixin which quoted unidentified sources. It cited messages on social media that Guo was last seen with police at an airport in Shanghai.
When that verdict was handed down in August, the court in Shanghai said Guo had “inappropriate connections” with Wang, according to Caixin.
The news follows reports earlier this week that two investment bankers from China’s biggest broker Citic Securities went missing over the weekend. He is a delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and has amassed a personal net worth of $5.7 billion along the way, according to Forbes.
It also marched into entertainment and tourism industries, by acquiring French holiday group Club Mediterranee in March and purchasing a 25 percent stake in Cirque du Soleil in May.
News website Sohu said government officials questioned Mr Guo in his Shanghai office on Thursday morning and in the afternoon, he could not be contacted.
Trading in the shares of Fosun International, the group’s main subsidiary, was halted “pending the release of an announcement containing inside information”, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, where it is listed, as did another unit, Fosun Pharmaceutical.
Shares in the group were suspended in Hong Kong after the disappearance of Guo Guangchang, dubbed “China’s Warren Buffett”, Fosun said in a statement.
In May of this year, Fosun agreed to buy the 80% of Bermuda-based insurer Ironshore Inc. that it did not already own for $1.8 billion, and in December 2014 it agreed to buy Southfield, Michigan-based insurer Meadowbrook Group Inc. for $433 million. Fosun Group now controls four domestically listed companies and two Hong Kong-listed entities.
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He has repeatedly denied charges that he was the subject of a graft investigation. Fosun also has stakes in Australia’s Roc Oil and German bank BHF, and operates a joint venture with British travel firm Thomas Cook. Fosun then sold the villas in west Shanghai to Mr Wang’s parents for 2.08 million yuan ($442,000), or about 2.69 million yuan less than the properties’ market value at that time. As the scope of the investigation has broadened, officials from several leading universities and some of China’s top stock brokerages have recently been detained.
