Fosun Boss Goes Missing in China, Say Reports

Financial magazine Caixin late on Thursday quoted unidentified sources saying the billionaire founder of Fosun Group could not be reached. It did not elaborate.

Reports on Thursday claimed that the billionaire – whose company’s NY real estate assets include 28 Liberty Street in the Financial District – was “unreachable” and had gone missing.

At 48, Guo is one of China’s most powerful tycoons.

Guo is China’s 17th richest man with a net worth of $5.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Fosun Group is involved in range of sectors including insurance and retail and earlier this year tookover holiday firm Club Med.

The company has broken its silence more than 24 hours after rumours of his Guo’s arrest for questioning at Shanghai International Airport began swirling.

According to Caixin, Guo was named in a court verdict on Wang Zongnan, head of state-controlled Shanghai retailer Bailian, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for embezzlement and bribery in August.

If Mr Guo’s disappearance does indeed prove to be part of that, then he would be among the most high profile Chinese businessmen caught up in it.

The campaign has also ensnared a long list of Communist Party officials, some of whom appear to have had disputes with Xi.

Born poor in a rural village in the southeastern province of Zhejiang, Mr. 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. The company’s interest in insurance business was manifested earlier by the 1-billion-euro ($1.1 bilion) acquisition of the insurance arm of Portuguese State bank Caixa Geral de Depositos SA at the beginning of 2015.

BBC Asia-Pacific analyst Michael Bristow says Mr Guo’s empire extends across the world, while Forbes magazine estimates his fortune at $7bn (£4.6bn).

The business was listed as Fosun International on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007, and today is capitalized at almost $15 billion. He has repeatedly denied charges that he was the subject of a graft investigation. However, Fosun said in a statement the properties were sold at a “reasonable” discount and it hadn’t received any benefits from Mr Wang.

He has served as a deputy to China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, as well as represented Shanghai on a high-level central government advisory body called the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

He is the founder of the company that owns Club Med and has stakes in Thomas Cook and Cirque du Soleil.