Mystery at Man Group: Source claims group's operations not being investigated ... but where is China chief Li Yifei?
Company's China chief Li Yifei was merely asked to assist in an investigation not related to the hedge fund, according to insider
Four days after Li Yifei, country chairwoman of Man Group in China, disappeared from the public scene, an insider at the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund has come out to say there is no probe against Man Investments' operations on the mainland.
Li's whereabouts remain unclear. Her husband, Wang Chaoyong, earlier said Li was called to a special meeting with "relevant industry authorities".
He denied a Bloomberg report that claimed police took her away for questioning over the mainland's recent market turmoil. Wang could not be contacted yesterday.
The Man Group source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said : "Li did not disappear. She is around. The lady has been invited to help an investigation related to another party - not Man".
Li was understood to be in Beijing. "There is no investigation of Man," the source stressed.
Officially, the company sticks to a flat "no comment" to all questions related to Li.
But the source said the company was holding internal discussions and "may consider announcing a clarification to the public" after the meetings.
An official with the Shanghai Financial Service Office yesterday said the authority was "aware that an investigation is taking place" in response to the 's inquiry about reports of Li's sudden disappearance. But officials were not authorised to comment further, he said.
Li's meeting with the authorities does not imply she is under formal investigation or has been involved in any wrongdoing.
When asked if the market’s speculation about Man Group signalled a wider crackdown by regulators on foreign finance firms, Qiumei Yang - former China Securities Regulatory Commission deputy director-general and now Asia Pacific CEO of fund advocacy group ICI Global – said she did not agree with that conclusion and declined comment on the issue.
Alex Werno - executive general manager at Fortune SG Fund Management and a member of the advisory committee of the Asset Management Association of China, the industry's self-regulating authority - said there had been increased scrutiny of funds, both foreign and domestic, since the market turmoil.
"Regulators have asked funds to stop all trades that could look like market manipulation," Werno said. "Most hedge funds are concerned about the case and are following the development very closely."
Aaron Boesky, chief executive of Marco Polo Pure Asset Management, said: "All of the problematic areas now related to short selling, 'malicious short selling' and margin financing were previously forbidden - they were opened only a year ago.
"If regulators don't like that, they shouldn't have opened these in the first place. The market was fine all these years without the developments."
