Chinese tycoon Guo Guangchang reported missing

Guo Guangchang, the co-founder and chairman of China’s biggest private investment conglomerate, has disappeared since Thursday afternoon, local media report, saying the Fosun Group chief was last seen with police in Shanghai.

Mr Guo, who has described himself as the “Chinese Warren Buffet” is the latest in a series of senior business figures to go missing in China, and there has been speculation that his disappearance could be part of a widening dragnet into corruption and abuse of power in the country, which has spread recently to the corporate world.

“The development comes amid speculation that he has been put under investigation for graft,” said the Chinese financial news service Caixin.

Caixin cited witnesses saying they had seen police taking Mr Guo away at a Shanghai airport after a flight from Hong Kong. He is one of China’s richest men and Fosun invests in everything from movies to coalmines to property, as well as the Club Med holiday group.

Mr Guo (48) has repeatedly denied links to a corruption investigation but he was found in August to have “inappropriate links” to Wang Zongnan, a close ally of former leader Jiang Zemin.

Mr Wang is a former chairman of Bright Foods, which owns Weetabix in Britain and which has explored cooperation with the Irish food company Glanbia. Mr Wang was sentenced to 18 years in jail for misusing 195 million yuan (€27.57 million) in corporate funds when he ran several state-owned enterprises.

Trading in shares in two of the group’s stock market listed companies, Fosun International and Fosun Pharmaceutical were halted on Friday.

Mr Guo is just the latest in a long list of suspended or “disappeared” Chinese bankers and finance heads, after president Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-graft campaign spread to the financial sector this year.

There have been several senior figures caught up in corruption investigations, with particular focus on the financial services industry after the stock market crash in the summer that wiped more than €4.5 trillion off the value of the markets.

Mao Xiaofeng, president of China Minsheng Bank was detained in January as part of a probe into Ling Jihua, the one-time top aide of former president Hu Jintao.

Zhang Yun, president of China’s third largest bank, Agricultural Bank of China, quit all his posts this month after he became embroiled in a probe.

Chen Hongqiao, president of the brokerage Guosen Securities, hanged himself at his home in Shenzhen in October after he was tied in to an investigation into the stock market regulator.