The statement said the company understands Guo is “currently assisting in certain investigations carried out by mainland judiciary authorities”. It is a top-10 shareholder in 21 domestic listed companies and news Mr Guo was “unreachable” on Thursday unsettled markets.
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Fosun, one of China’s biggest private conglomerates, halted trading of its Hong Kong shares following the reports.
Fosun International, the parent company of Shanghai-based Fosun Group, was listed in Hong Kong in 2007.
The statement was vague and did not say where or if Mr Guo was being held by the authorities or give any other details about the investigations.
China watchers said any confirmation that Guo faces scrutiny from regulators would reverberate internationally.
Speaking on a conference call, chief executive Liang Xinjun reiterated that Chairman Guo Guanchang was able to take part in major decisions involving the company and that the firm’s operations remained normal.
The Fosun Group is one of the country’s biggest private companies and its flagship subsidiary, Fosun International, has net assets of 50 billion yuan (S$11.03 billion). Fosun, which he co-founded in the 1990s, has businesses in real estate, steel, mining and retailing. The Financial Times dubbed him “China’s Warren Buffett” for modeling himself on the legendary American investor.
Its overseas investments include Club Med, Cirque du Soleil and the landmark One Chase Manhattan Plaza in NY.
Mr Guo has a net worth of 7.8 billion dollars (£5.1 billion), according to the Hurun Report, which follows China’s wealthy.
It is imperative to state that a court in Shanghai that Guo had inappropriate connections with the Chairman of a state-owned supermarket chain who was sentenced to 18 years in jail in August. The latter said it had “never sought to inappropriately benefit” and had “never delivered benefits to Wang Zongnan”.
Fosun denied any impropriety and said the villas were sold at market prices.
Earlier in the year, a string of senior executives were found to have gone missing temporarily amid Beijing’s crackdown, in a sign of how serious China is about ramping up scrutiny of its financial sector.
In May, Fosun International bought an 80 per cent stake of USA insurer Ironshore Inc. He said that unusually favorable arrangement reduced the amount of capital Fosun had to tie up in the company while making it a partner of state managers. They cited the pending release of an announcement with “inside information”.
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“Many linked his disappearance to an investigation by the authorities”, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
