Abducted Billionaire's Group Slams Takeovers

The group founded by mainland businessman Xiao Jianhua, who was believed to have been abducted in Hong Kong in 2017, has slammed mainland authorities for taking control of nine of its companies.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced that they had taken over the brokerages, trust companies and insurers under Tomorrow Holdings Company for one year.

In a statement posted on its official WeChat account, Tomorrow Holdings said it has been cooperating with investigations by the authorities regarding Xiao since he was "taken to the mainland".

It accused the regulators of stripping it of its autonomy in running its businesses and barring it from normal expansion operations.

The group accused the authorities of placing obstacles in the way of its restructuring efforts for the subsidiaries.

It went as far as questioning whether a "trade-off" had taken place and said it might file complaints, in accordance with its rights.

Tomorrow Holdings insisted that it has never breached any contracts or faced liquidity risks since its founder was taken away.

The group's statement was later unavailable, with WeChat saying the content had violated its rules.

Xiao was widely believed to have been kidnapped by mainland agents in Hong Kong in January 2017. He was last seen being taken out of the Four Seasons Hotel in a wheelchair by unidentified people with his head covered.