Chinese investment bank works to calm staff after founder goes missing

China Renaissance, one of the country’s leading investment banks, worked to calm anxious employees following the disappearance of its founder and renowned dealmaker Bao Fan.

Shares in the company fell 50 per cent when the market opened in Hong Kong on Friday before paring losses to be down about 28 per cent, after the boutique bank disclosed it was unable to contact Bao.

In a message sent to employees on Friday morning and seen by the Financial Times, Wang Lixing, head of investment banking, sought to ease concerns about Bao’s disappearance.

“Good morning . . . I think everyone has had a restless night,” Wang said, calling on staff “not to spread or believe rumours”.

Wang did not mention Bao by name but told employees management had been in touch with the “backbone of our investment banking division”.

He added that “in such a critical moment, everyone must believe in the group, believe in the executive committee, and not lose our heads”, but acknowledged that “the available information is limited”.

China Renaissance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The disappearance of Bao, who made his fortune in tech deals, comes despite Beijing appearing to ease a crackdown on the sector, which had throttled the investment bank’s once-thriving business in lucrative listings and corporate finance.

The bank said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on Thursday evening that the company “has been unable to contact Mr Bao Fan” and was not aware that his “unavailability is or might be related to the business and/or operations of the group”.

The Beijing-based financial group said its executive committee would manage day-to-day operations in his absence.

Business figures in China often become unreachable when they are the subject of a government investigation.

Bao’s disappearance adds to a long list of Chinese financial executives who have disappeared as part of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign, which he launched shortly after coming to power in 2012.

Bao’s connections to China’s tech sector were formed in the late 1990s when he met the founders of the country’s “tech trinity” — Alibaba’s Jack Ma, Tencent’s Pony Ma and Baidu’s Robin Li. “I met them when they were nobody,” Bao told the Financial Times in 2018.

But the fortunes of China’s tech moguls have changed dramatically under Xi’s tenure, and shares in most tech groups have not fully recovered from a sell-off sparked by a crackdown on the sector.

A period of intense regulatory scrutiny began two years ago, with ride-hailing group Didi Chuxing’s botched initial public offering. China Renaissance served as Didi’s bookrunner on the New York listing.

The company pushed ahead with its $4.4bn share sale in 2021 despite national security concerns from regulators. The group was forced to delist in June last year.

Additional reporting by William Langley in Hong Kong