Advertisement

Man Group's China chief assisting police probe - Bloomberg

By Paul Carsten

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have taken Li Yifei, chairwoman of British hedge fund manager Man Group Plc's China unit, into custody to help with a police probe into market volatility, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Li's assistance with police inquiries does not mean she is facing charges or has done anything wrong, Bloomberg said.

Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

Man Group spokeswoman Rosanna Konarzewski declined to comment on the matter. China's Ministry of Public Security could not immediately be reached for comment outside regular working hours.

Li's husband, Wang Chaoyong, told Reuters he had spoken with his wife on Sunday and Monday, and she had told him she was in "highly confidential" meetings.

"She said she was in meetings and it's inconvenient for me to contact her," he said by telephone, adding he did not know where the meetings were taking place.

Chinese authorities have been probing possible market manipulation following recent gyrations in the country's equity markets, which have plunged some 40 percent since mid-June on concerns over a slowing economy and an unexpected devaluation of the yuan currency in mid-August.

Regulators have cracked down on alleged fabrication of trading information, malicious short selling and other strategies seen as hampering a market recovery.

Li, a former MTV Networks executive, was appointed Country Chair, China in 2011, according to a page on Man Group's website archived by Google on Aug. 6. The page is not currently accessible.

Man Group says on its website it has $78.8 billion of assets under management.

(This story has been refiled to fix byline)

(Additional reporting by Shu Zhang, Nishant Kumar in London and Michelle Price in Hong Kong; Writing by Rachel Armstrong; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Ian Geoghegan)