Shanghai|Beijing | In May 2021, a group of Chinese banks agreed to lend $US300 million ($435 million) to investment bank China Renaissance with a condition: if Bao Fan, the company’s well-known founder, ceased to be its largest shareholder or was no longer chair of the board they could demand early repayment.

Nearly two years later, lawyers may soon be poring over that clause. The disappearance of Mr Bao last week, announced in a company filing, has set on edge the country’s vast tech industry that the dealmaker helped to build.

Financial Times