Top Chinese banker Bao Fan has been missing for some days now, his company China Renaissance said on Thursday, 16 February.
In its market update, China Renaissance said that its chairman and chief executive was unreachable. However, the exact date from when Fan has been missing is not known yet.
The company statement further added that it is not aware of "any information that indicates that Bao's unavailability is or might be related to the business and/or operations of the group."
Fan is one of the top figures in the Chinese tech industry and has played an important role in the emergence of a string of large domestic internet startups, reported The Guardian.
Chinese news agency Caixin, citing several people close to Fan, reported that he has neither shown up to office nor appeared in public in recent days. Fan reportedly hasn't responded to calls or WeChat messages from Caixin.
The market reaction: Soon after the news was reported, shares of China Renaissance Holdings plunged on Friday, 17 February.
This is not the first time that prominent Chinese businesspersons have been reported missing.
Fosun group founder Guo Guangchang went missing for several days in 2015. However, Fosun later said that he was assisting with investigations regarding a personal matter.
Another Chinese-Canadian businessman, Xiao Jianhua, was whisked away from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, where he was understood to have been living at the time in 2017, reported BBC. Last year, he received a 13-year jail sentence under corruption charges.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma also disappeared from public view for three months, after making comments critical of market regulators in 2020.
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