One of China’s top entrepreneurs, the chairman of the Fosun conglomerate that owns Club Med and other businesses in Europe and the US, is assisting Chinese authorities with an investigation, his company missing-fosun-chairman-guo-guangchang-assisting-chinese-judiciary-5299/”>said, a possible sign that an anti-corruption campaign is widening beyond state companies.
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The high-profile Chinese tycoon was first reported missing Friday.
The Caixin site quoted sources saying that Fosun had been unable to reach Mr Guo since around lunchtime local time last Thursday, although Fosun in Hong Kong declined to comment on the reports.
BBC Asia-Pacific analyst Michael Bristow said that Guo’s business portfolio is a global concern, while Forbes magazine pegs his fortune at $7 billion.
When Guo, 48, reappeared at Fosun’s meeting on Monday, 14 December, he is said to have received a standing ovation from the members present.
The group’s shares were suspended on Friday and dropped more than 10% when trading resumed today.
Zhang Yun, president of the Agricultural Bank of China, one of China’s four massive, state-owned banks, was detained in October as part of a corruption probe.
But Fosun has now made a statement claiming Guangchang, company’s executive director, chairman and the ultimate controlling shareholder, is assisting in investigations being carried out by the judiciary authorities in mainland China.
Recently, a number of senior executives had gone missing temporarily amidst a crackdown in Beijing, an indication that China is taking serious measures to scrutinize its financial sector. Often called “China’s Warren Buffett” for his aggressive and carefully planned investment strategy, Guo set up Fosun and began investing in pharmaceuticals soon after graduating from Shanghai’s Fudan University in the early 1990s. Ai was “suspected of severe violations of party discipline”, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on its website last month, using language that often refers to corruption probes.
Fosun won a bidding war this year to take over Club Mediterranee, the French resort operator.
The company said it had “never sought to inappropriately benefit” and had “never delivered benefits to” Mr Wang.
The unconfirmed report of Guo’s release follows a briefing given by the company on Sunday at which Guo’s detention and interrogation were explained as being “focused mostly on his personal affairs”.
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Fanfan Wang in Shanghai and Fiona Law in Hong Kong contributed to this article.
