Chairman and director of Minsheng’s SRE Group unit are detained by Shanghai police on embezzlement charges
- SRE Group’s chairman Peng Xinkuang has been arrested by Shanghai police on embezzlement charges
- Executive Director Chen Donghui has already been detained in Shanghai under the same charge, SRE Group said in a statement
The chairman and the executive director of a real estate unit owned by China’s largest privately owned financial services group are being detained by Shanghai police on embezzlement charges.
Peng Xinkuang, the chairman and former chief executive of SRE Group Limited, has been approved for arrest under the embezzlement charge, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, where the real estate developer’s shares are listed. Executive director Chen Donghui has separately been detained by Shanghai police under the same charge, according to the statement, citing SRE’s acting chief executive Zhu Qiang.
“The company has attempted to contact Peng and Chen but has been unsuccessful,” said Zhu, who was appointed the acting chief executive after the company failed to contact Peng. “Peng and Chen are currently unable to perform their duties as directors of the company and the company is not yet able to obtain any further information to ascertain the nature and status of the arrest and the detention.”
Shares of SRE Group fell as much as 2.1 per cent to 4.7 Hong Kong cents today. The stock, listed in Hong Kong in 1999 at 79.8 Hong Kong cents, had fallen by 28.8 per cent this year.
The Shanghai developer is 75.06 owned by China Minsheng Investment Group (CMIG), the country’s largest private-sector investment fund founded in 2014 by 59 entrepreneurs including the retailer Suning Appliance Group and business-park operator Yida Group.