Author: web desk

The disappearance of a star Chinese dealmaker has left his bank struggling to reassure clients and staff, people with knowledge of the matter said on Monday, and has heightened concerns about “key man risk” for investors.
Shares of China Renaissance Holdings 1911.HK fell by as much as 5% on Monday, following a record low in the previous session after the investment bank said it could not contact its founder, chairman and CEO Bao Fan.
The stock ended the day up 0.1% in the Hong Kong market that rose 0.8%.
Though the reasons for Bao’s disappearance are unclear, his case follows a series of incidents in which high-profile executives in China have gone missing with little explanation during a sweeping anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by President Xi Jinping.
Some of them reappeared as abruptly as they disappeared.
China Renaissance said on Thursday in a stock exchange filing that it had no information that Bao’s “unavailability” was related to its business, and that its operations were continuing normally.
China Renaissance co-founder Kevin Xie and its investment banking head, Wang Lixing, who are running the company in Bao’s absence, have asked staff not to believe or spread rumours, according to two sources and copies of their messages to staff seen by Reuters.
“At such a critical moment, everyone should trust the company. Don’t fret and stumble. It’s OK to encounter some difficulties in the short term,” Wang said in his message posted on the company’s Wechat group on Friday.
According to two sources and some media reports, authorities took Bao away earlier this month to assist in an investigation into a former colleague, Cong Lin, the company’s former president.
All the sources, who have knowledge of the matter, declined to be identified due to its sensitivity.
A spokesperson for Beijing-based China Renaissance declined to comment on specific details and referred Reuters to its exchange filing made on Thursday.
Xie and Wang did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on Monday.
Beijing’s public security bureau also did not respond to request for comment. Asked during a daily news conference on Friday whether the banker had been detained, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said he was not aware of the situation.
The Hong Kong-listed stock, which climbed as much as 3.5% early on Monday, gave up all those gains and fell to as low as HK$6.82. It hit an all-time low of HK$5 on Friday but later recovered some ground to close at HK$7.18, down 28%.
‘Key man risk’
Bao, also China Renaissance’s controlling shareholder, started the firm in 2005 as a two-person team, seeking to match capital-hungry startups with venture capitalist and private equity investors.
It firm later expanded into services including underwriting, sales and trading.
Known to be well connected in the corporate world, Bao was involved with tech mergers including the tie-up of ride-hailing firms Didi and Kuaidi, food delivery giants Meituan 3690.HK and Dianping, and travel platforms Ctrip 9961.HK and Qunar.
“What happened to China Renaissance highlighted the key man risk with some Chinese companies,” Li Nan, professor of Finance at Shanghai Jiaotong University, said.
“A group of Chinese financial institutions rose quickly over the past few years on one to two controllers’ efforts, while it makes these companies particularly vulnerable to any negative headlines that show the controllers are in trouble.”
Key man risk generally refers to the threat posed to a company from over-reliance on a limited number of personnel for decision making.
While it is not uncommon in China for authorities to take away business executives for various reasons, Bao’s disappearance comes against the backdrop of more than two years of sweeping regulatory crackdown on technology companies.
“This should once again remind foreign investors of the relative level of regulatory and governance risk associated with Chinese equities,” said Propitious Research analyst Wium Malan, who publishes on Smartkarma platform.

Source: Voice Of America

Two 16th-century sculptures, jewels of French Renaissance art, have been on display since 1908 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
But thanks to modern technology and an unusual agreement, precise 3D copies will be made and installed in the French castle where the originals long resided.
The facsimiles plan is the fruit of a rare partnership between the Met, as the New York museum is known, and the Dordogne department in southwestern France.
The statues, both from the early 1500s and by an anonymous sculptor, represent Biblical scenes entitled “Entombment of Christ” and “Pieta With Donors.”
A tourism promotion agency in the Dordogne, Semitour, will be working with the Atelier of Fac-Similes Perigord (AFSP) to make the replicas over the coming months.
For nearly 400 years, the originals graced the chapel of the Biron chateau in the Dordogne.
Built on a strategic promontory, the sprawling fortress comprises buildings from different eras, including a dungeon dating to the 12th century.
Damaged and rebuilt repeatedly through the centuries, the chateau has belonged since 1978 to the Dordogne department, which declared it a historic monument, Dordogne president Germinal Peiro said during a visit to the Met.
Digital copy
The technology to be employed in copying the sculptures was described to AFP by Francis Rigenbach, who heads the Perigord atelier, and C. Griffith Mann, the Met’s medieval art curator.
Using 3D scanners to make digital images of the sculptures, artisans will be able to create replicas without having to move or disturb the monumental originals.
“By making a digital ‘cast,'” said Rigenbach, “we can employ non-invasive techniques” to produce identical copies.
He added that “90 percent of the artistic work” will involve reproducing signs of wear, such as the patina on the ageing marble originals — though both statues are considered exceptionally well-preserved.
The replicas, to be returned to their original spots in the Biron chapel, will cost around 350,000 euros ($375,000), Rigenbach added.
His atelier is famed for having copied the celebrated Lascaux cave — including its prehistoric wall art — for a museum in Montignac, in northern Perigord.
That allows visitors to feel as if they were visiting the cave itself, which was closed 60 years ago to avoid damage to the fragile site, said Sebastien Cailler, who manages the Biron chateau.
“And when you see these facsimile sculptures in Biron, you’ll surely feel the same emotion as if you were standing before the originals,” he told AFP in New York.
The two statues, whose value was recognized by historians and collectors in the late 18th century, were sold in 1907 by the last marquis of Biron to wealthy American banker John Pierpont Morgan, who was then president of the Met board.
In the 1950s, Dordogne and the Biron castle negotiated with the Met for four years in a vain effort to recover the statues.
In 2018, Perigord officials revived talks with the Met; four years later, technological tests were undertaken, and then on February 15, the agreement was signed in New York.
This type of unusual deal ensures that art works can exist in two places, Mann said, while adding that his museum, with its millions of annual visitors, “seems like the safest place to have the sculptures for their long-term preservation.”

Source: Voice Of America

One year after Australia deported Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic for refusing to get vaccinated, Australian Open tournament officials say players this year will not be tested for COVID-19 and would even be allowed to compete even if they had the virus.
Tournament director Craig Tiley told reporters Monday they are telling players and tournament staff to stay away if they feel ill, but otherwise they will not be tested. If they have already been tested, they will not be required to disclose their status.
Tiley said the tournament just wanted to “follow what is currently in the community.”
The new policy is a stark change from the strict protocols of the past two years, when spectators were banned from the tournament, matches were played in a bio-secure “bubble,” and nine-time tournament champion Djokovic was not allowed to play.
Last week, during a Cricket match in Sydney between South Africa and Australia, Australian Cricketer Matt Renshaw was allowed to play in a five-day test match despite testing positive for COVID.
Riley said, “It’s a normalized environment for us and, not dissimilar to cricket, there will potentially be players that will compete with COVID.”
The more relaxed rules for sports reflects Australia’s more relaxed rules regarding COVID-19. At the height of the pandemic, the nation — and Melbourne in particular -— endured some of the longest and strictest lockdowns.
But in the past year, mandates regarding safeguards such as testing, and mask-wearing have been replaced.

Source: Voice of America

A U.N.-led study released Monday shows a hole in the protective layer of ozone over Antarctica is on track to fully recover in about four decades, thanks to the global phasing out of nearly 99% of banned ozone-depleting substances.
The report, published every four years, was presented Monday at the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Denver.
The report indicates that if current policies remain in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 values — before the appearance of the ozone hole — by around 2066 over the Antarctic, by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2040 for the rest of the world. It shows the Antarctic ozone hole has been slowly improving in area and depth since the year 2000.
The scientific assessment monitors the progress of the Montreal Protocol, a global agreement reached in 1987 and put into place in 1989, intended to protect the Earth’s ozone layer by phasing out the chemicals that deplete it, often used as propellants in household products or in air conditioning.
In a statement, U.N. Environmental Program Ozone Secretariat Meg Seki said the ozone recovery data in this latest study is “fantastic news.”
“The impact the Montreal Protocol has had on climate change mitigation cannot be overstressed,” she said, calling the treaty “a true champion for the environment.”
The latest assessment has been made based on extensive studies, research and data compiled by experts from the U.N. World Meteorological Organization; the U.N. Environment Program; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the U.S. space agency, NASA; and the European Commission.

Source: Voice of America

Khaosan Pathet Lao (Lao News Agency), abbreviated to KPL, on Friday organized a gathering to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of KPL (Jan 6, 1968-2023).
The celebration was held in the presence of Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Suansavan Vignaket, KPL’s Director General Khampheuy Philapha, his predecessors, KPL’s retired and active staff and invited guests.
Addressing the meeting, Minister Suansavan urged the management and staff of KPL to continue to serve the Party and government by paying attention to developing more professionals and its modernization as well as making use of social media so that KPL can continue to be a reliable, accurate and recent source of information.
Director General of KPL News Khampheuy Philapha briefed the meeting about the history of the Lao News Agency as well as its achievements in the past five and half decades.
Former directors general of KPL also shared with the participants their years of experience at the Lao national news agency.

Source: Lao News Agency