Fosun chairman returns home after assisting investigation

The CEO missing-in-china-say-reports-9281/”>said Guo was able to take part in major decisions involving the company, but also said Fosun had the management structures and business strength to withstand Guo’s absence, saying it did not rely on “any one executive”.

Fosun president Wang Qunbin would not disclose details of the police investigation, but said it mostly concerned Guo’s personal affairs, not Fosun business. Reports that Guo couldn’t be reached reverberated through markets, causing several companies linked to his conglomerate to halt their shares from trading on Friday.

Caijing said Monday that Guo has “finalised” assisting in the inquiries and “returned home safely”.

The Caixan online newspaper, which had reported Guo as missing Thursday, said that a Chinese court had found that his links to a former chairman of a state-owned food and beverages company – who was handed an 18-year term in August – had been “inappropriate”.

“Fosun has developed a clearer idea of the meaning of its existence”, Guo said during his speech at the meeting after receiving a wave of applause lasting for two minutes.

Guo’s alleged disappearance late last week had sparked investors concern about its impact on Fosun, one of China’s most aggressive global dealmakers with stakes French resort chain Club Med, Britain’s Thomas Cook Group and iconic US building One Chase Manhattan Plaza.

The shares fell 10 per cent to HK$11.98 at 9:51 am in Hong Kong, after plunging as much as 13.5 per cent earlier, the biggest intraday decline since July 8.

This was Guo’s first appearance in public after he went mysteriously missing earlier, fuelling speculations that he might have been arrested by the Chinese government as part of an ongoing crackdown on corruption.

Fosun’s statement came after trading in the shares of its Hong Kong companies, Fosun International and Fosun Pharmaceutical, were suspended Friday.

“A lot of companies will be on the investigation list and it will alert all the investors”, he said. Fosun, which he co-founded in the 1990s, has businesses in real estate, steel, mining and retailing. Last year, it paid 1 billion euro (£722,000,000) for Portugal’s biggest insurance company, Caixa Seguros. The company, Guotai Junan, hasn’t said anything since, and Yim’s whereabouts are still unknown. 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.