Chinese tycoon and Fosun chairman Guo Guangchang goes missing

On December 11th, as investors and businesspeople across China waited for further news on Mr Guo’s fate, trading in shares of Fosun International, the group’s Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, was suspended.

Domestic online publication Caixin reported late Thursday that Fosun Group had been unable to reach Guo Guangchang, founder and chairman of the company, since noon local time yesterday.

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.

Guo Guangchang, a self-made billionaire tagged “China’s Warren Buffett” for his highly successful investment portfolio, went incommunicado on Thursday. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Nanjing Iron & Steel Co., Shanghai Yuyuan Tourist Mart Co. and Hainan Mining Co. suspended trading in Shanghai on “relevant issue” verification, according to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Still, Guo’s apparent sudden disappearance adds to the mystery over missing executives and top government officials.

During the case, it was alleged Mr Wang asked Mr Guo in 2003 for a discount on two villas developed by Fosun’ property arm. The company is in the process of acquiring German private bank Hauck & Aufhaeuser Privatbankiers KGaA and is among investors offering to take Chinese movie studio Bona Film Group Ltd. private.

“Guo is one of the high-profile Chinese entrepreneurs and this incident will raise eyebrows among foreign regulators as Fosun has been aggressively expanding its global insurance footprint”, Moody’s analyst Sally Yim said.

It also owns French holiday group Club Mediterranee and bought a stake in Canadian circus operator Cirque du Soleil this year. However, Liang Xinjun, its vice-chairman, did reveal to a news agency that his firm is “handling” the situation. Other real estate investments include Lloyds Chambers in London and One Chase Manhattan Plaza in NY. He has a net worth of $5.6 billion, according to Forbes, and is the chairman and co-founder of the massive Fosun conglomerate.

In August, a Shanghai court said Fosun International had questionable and inappropriate ties with Wang Zongnan who was then the president of a state enterprise and who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for embezzlement and corruption. A Chinese magazine Wealth Management Weekly ranked Guo as the fourth richest man in 2014. The Morning Post reports the company plans to make a public statement shortly.

“The reality is that while big brokerages might be the target of such investigations, market players may not know what other industries are involved”, said Bernard Aw, a strategist at IG Asia Pte.in Singapore.