Bao Fan, star dealmaker and founder of boutique investment bank China Renaissance Holdings, has been released more than two years after being detained by Chinese authorities, the Reuters news agency has reported, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. Bao, widely regarded as one of China’s best-connected bankers, was released from detention earlier this week, the person said on Friday, declining to be identified because the information was not public.
China Renaissance sent shockwaves through the country’s financial sector in 2023 when it announced it was unable to contact Bao, who founded the bank in 2005 with two other men and still owns nearly 49 percent of the company’s issued shares. He was one of the several high-profile executives in China, mostly from the finance industry, who went missing in recent years with little explanation amid a sweeping anticorruption campaign spearheaded by President Xi Jinping.
His release comes as Beijing seeks to boost business confidence, particularly among the country’s tech entrepreneurs, whose businesses have suffered from a years-long crackdown. China is looking to boost confidence in the private sector, which has been reeling from weak domestic consumption and a prolonged debt crisis in the property sector, against a broader backdrop of heightened trade tensions with the United States.
“This is certainly a positive signal, as Bao was the most high-profile financier detained in recent years,” said Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director of Gavekal Dragonomics. “Still, it won’t change the fact that the anticorruption campaign continues to churn through the financial sector, and the common prosperity campaign has led to sweeping pay caps and even clawbacks,” said Beddor.
“China’s financial sector remains a long way from its heyday only a few years ago.” Bao had been involved in high-profile deals, including the mergers of ride-hailing firms Didi and Kuaidi, food delivery giants Meituan and Dianping, and travel platforms Ctrip and Qunar.
Neither China Renaissance nor Bao responded immediately to Reuters’s requests for comment. Chinese media Caixin first reported Bao’s release, citing unidentified sources. China Renaissance’s shares jumped 17 percent on Friday to close at 6.87 Hong Kong dollars ($0.8752) before the news of his release became public.
Bao, who previously worked at Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, went missing in February 2023. Trade in China Renaissance shares was suspended in April 2023 after the bank delayed publication of its audited annual results as a result of mainland Chinese authorities detaining Bao as part of an investigation.
A Chinese financial publication reported in May 2023 that he was detained by disciplinary and supervision officials. Authorities have as yet not given any explanation. China Renaissance shares plunged 72 percent on the day it resumed trading last September. Sources have previously told Reuters that he was taken away to assist in an investigation into a former colleague.