After disappearing nearly a year ago as part of an investigation by Chinese authorities, prominent investment banker Bao Fan has resigned as chairman and chief executive of China Renaissance Holdings, the company said on Friday. Mr. Bao, a deal-making banker for Chinese internet giants Alibaba and Tencent, went missing last February. China Renaissance initially said it had lost contact with Mr. Bao before later stating that he was cooperating with an investigation being carried out by the authorities in China. Mr. Bao’s disappearance signaled an escalation in Beijing’s crackdown on…
Tag: Bao Fan (1970- )
To Rein in China’s Banks, Xi Uses Familiar Playbook
To a man with a hammer, a renowned psychologist once posited, everything looks like a nail. For most of his decade in power, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, has usually arrived at the same conclusion for how best to deal with the country’s issues: get the Communist Party more involved. And now, as China is confronting an economy lacking the dynamism of the past and teetering from a real estate sector in crisis and local governments overrun with debt, Mr. Xi is again wielding his hammer. At the annual gathering of…
China’s Tech Rainmaker Vanishes, and So Does Business Confidence
On Valentine’s Day in 2015, two of China’s biggest ride-hailing start-ups, one backed by the tech giant Alibaba and the other by Tencent, announced they would merge after burning through hundreds of millions of dollars in a price war. Brokering the deal, while managing the egos of combative founders and investors, was Bao Fan, the rainmaker of China’s tech industry. His company, the investment bank China Renaissance, went on to advise and invest in many of China’s most successful tech companies, taking them public in Hong Kong and New York.…