One of China’s top entrepreneurs, the chairman of the conglomerate that owns Club Med and other businesses in Europe and the United States, is missing, a news report said on Friday, a possible sign th
One of China’s top entrepreneurs, the chairman of the conglomerate that owns Club Med and other businesses in Europe and the United States, is missing, a news report said on Friday, a possible sign that an anti-corruption campaign is widening beyond state companies.
Fosun International employees were unable to contact Guo Guangchang after midday Thursday, the magazine Caixin said on its website. It cited messages on social media that Guo was last seen with police at an airport in Shanghai.
China is in the midst of a three-year-old anti-graft crackdown led by President Xi Jinping that has snared dozens of executives at state-owned companies in oil and other industries. A court cited Guo in August as being linked to a supermarket chain chairman who was jailed for corruption.
A series of figures in China’s securities industry have disappeared or been detained since August after authorities launched an investigation following a plunge in Chinese share prices in June.
Fosun, China’s biggest privately owned conglomerate, and its pharmaceutical unit suspended trading of their shares on Friday in Hong Kong. They cited the pending release of an announcement with “inside information.” Phone calls to Fosun’s media and investor relations departments weren’t answered.
If Guo is under investigation, that suggests authorities are extending scrutiny beyond state-owned firms, increasing uncertainty for investors, said Ronald Wan, CEO of investment banking at Partners Capital International in Hong Kong.
“A lot of companies will be on the investigation list and it will alert all the investors,” he said.
Mr Wan said the government should clarify Guo’s status. “If he is really getting caught in some sort of serious trouble, at least the group can have some sort of contingency plan and work out a solution to how the company can be run,” said Mr Wan.
Guo, 48, is one of China’s biggest investors abroad. 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 following the legendary American investor’s approach of using the cash flow from insurance operations to buy other businesses.
Guo has a net worth of $7.8 billion, according to the Hurun Report, which follows China’s wealthy. The Chinese tycoon denied earlier he was the target of a graft investigation.
