Mr. Guo’s whereabouts had been uncertain for days even as the company on Friday issued a statement signed by Mr. Guo that said he was being held in connection with an inquiry but was able to participate in “major matters” before the corporation. Fosun on Sunday said it involved a personal matter, not company business.
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Shares of its Fosun International Ltd arm and other listed units slumped on Monday after a trading halt was lifted late Friday, though its bonds rose.
A news report says a Chinese tycoon whose company said he was assisting an official investigation after he disappeared for a day last week has emerged to speak at a corporate meeting.
According to Chinese finance publisher Caixin, Guo gave a 10-minute speech and received a standing ovation but did not touch on his disappearance, having reportedly been whisked away by police at a Shanghai airport after a flight from Hong Kong.
A spokeswoman at Fosun declined to comment.
Chinese authorities have also launched wide-ranging probes into the financial sector following a rout in the country’s share markets this year when a debt-fuelled bubble burst.
An anti-corruption crackdown led by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has snared dozens of executives at state companies.
His Fosun Group, which began with pharmaceuticals in the 1990s, has since expanded through the purchase of other companies in the USA and Europe, in sectors including insurance, travel and leisure. They will also make efforts to build up a global platform in a more organized way.
Fosun had been given a green light by the European Central Bank for its takeover, but with reservations, two of the people said.
Guo, 48, one of China’s most famous billionaires who fashions himself after Warren Buffett, went incommunicado on Thursday afternoon.
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%.
Born poor in a rural village in the southeastern province of Zhejiang, Guo studied philosophy at the elite Fudan University in Shanghai before founding his first firm in 1992 alongside classmates as an information services company with 100,000 yuan ($15,495) in capital.
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“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.
