The billionaire chairman of China’s Fosun Group, Guo Guangchang, has gone missing, several media reports said, as trading in shares of the group’s companies was halted on Friday.
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Trading in the shares of Fosun International, the group’s main subsidiary, were halted on Friday “pending the release of an announcement containing inside information”, it said in a statement.
Since it was founded in 1992 by Guo and three fellow graduates of Shanghai’s Fudan University as a startup with initial capital of $4,000, Fosun has spent more than $30 billion in buying foreign assets.
The HKEx filings come a day after reports Thursday Guo, sometimes referred to as China’s Warren Buffett, could not be found.
Fosun has interests in everything from real estate to entertainment, and recently bought the luxury resort chain Club Med. It also owns a stake in Cirque du Soleil.
Fosun International dollar bonds fell by a record, with the US$400 million of 6.875 per cent bonds due in 2020 slumping 16.1 cents to 88.3 cents, before trading at 92.11 cents on the dollar as of 12:15 p.m.in Hong Kong.
A Chinese billionaire who was reported missing has been caught up in an investigation by Chinese officials, his company said Friday.
Guo’s disappearance comes in the midst of a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown led by President Xi Jinping in which dozens of executives at state-owned companies have been detained or questioned.
Fosun International chairman Guo Guangchang in 2014. Additional press outlets from Hong Kong and China have reported that Guo has suddenly become unreachable, leading to speculation that he was picked up by the Chinese authorities on corruption charges.
Fosun staff told Caixin, an influential Chinese business magazine, that they lost contact with Guo on Thursday. Fosun International had total assets, spread across, insurance, health, steel, banking, worth $55 billion at the end of June 2015.
Today, the conglomerate has a wide range of global investments including Greek fashion brand Folli Follie and the Chase Manhattan building in NY.
Among his recent acquisitions are holiday group Club Med, America’s Meadowbrook Insurance Group and Ironshore, and Portuguese insurer Caixa Seguros.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission last month announced proceedings against two brockerages, CITIC Securities and Guosen Securities, over the stock market tumble that saw the Shanghai index lose around a third of its value over a matter of weeks this summer.
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When that verdict was handed down in August, the court in Shanghai said Guo had “inappropriate connections” with Wang, according to Caixin.
