(Yicai) Sept. 9 -- China Renaissance Holdings plunged after resuming trading in Hong Kong. The investment bank’s stock had been suspended for 17 months in the wake of its co-founder and actual controller Bao Fan being placed under investigation by Chinese regulators.

China Renaissance [HKG: 1911] finished 66 percent lower at HKD2.45 (31 US cents) a share today, after earlier sinking by as much as 73 percent to CNY1.98.

In March last year, China Renaissance said that Chinese regulators had taken Bao in for investigation but did not disclose why. According to media reports, he was being investigated in connection with illegal operations in the ship leasing business by Cong Lin, former chairman of Huaxing Securities, a unit of China Renaissance.

As a result of Bao’s detainment, Beijing-based China Renaissance was unable to complete its annual audit and was forced to postpone the release of its 2022 financial report, which resulted in the share trading halt.

This February, China Renaissance said Bao had resigned as executive director, chairman, and chief executive as well as from all other positions in the firm with immediate effect due to health reasons. Co-founder Xie Yijing replaced him.

At the suggestion of controlling shareholder CR Partners, Bao’s wife Hui Yin Ching was appointed as a non-executive director at China Renaissance for a three-year term, it said on Sept. 6.

Hui was not involved in China Renaissance’s business before and confirmed that she has not received any regulatory notices or been involved in any court proceedings connected with the pending cases related to Bao, the firm added.

With stakes of 79 percent and 21 percent, respectively, Bao and Hui own BH Partners, the largest shareholder of CR Partners. BH Partners has a 73.4 percent interest in CR Partners.

China Renaissance was one of the leading players in the country’s venture capital sector. Founded by Bao in 2005, the firm has brokered some of China's big tech sector mergers, including that between Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache which created the ride-hailing giant Didi Global. It has also served many other Chinese internet titans, such as JD.Com, 360 Security Technology, iQiyi, and Momo.

China Renaissance reported net losses of CNY430 million (USD6.4 million) and CNY471 million in 2022 and last year, respectively. In the first half of this year, it had a net loss of CNY74 million (USD10.4 million) on a 38 percent plunge in revenue to CNY360 million from a year earlier.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione