China's Baoneng condemns assault on its chairman

Chinese property and financial services conglomerate Shenzhen Baoneng Investment Group has condemned a “violent assault” on its chairperson and is “sparing no effort” to resolve the issue of some late salary payments, it said. 

Billionaire Yao Zhenhua was chased and beaten up by several former employees outside his company’s headquarters in the city of Shenzhen early on Monday, several online media outlets reported. 

Some media photographs showed placards saying “give me back salary” stuck on the windows of his black Maybach car. 

After the assault, Yao appeared disheveled in some photographs, but he later attended a meeting at which he announced some layoff plans, the Phoenix Weekly reported. 

The group, in a statement dated Thursday, said it was taking legal action over the assault. It said most of its operation units were paying salaries as normal. 

Baoneng has been facing cashflow problems, it has said, since the second half of 2021 as the property sector became embroiled in a debt crisis. A venture in a new energy vehicle business added to the stress, media has reported. 

Baoneng said in its Thursday statement that its many businesses were improving, and it had been having “breakthroughs” in solving liquidity difficulties. It did not elaborate. 

(Reuters)