SHANGHAI--Companies in business with Liu Han, a Chinese tycoon
with resources investments in the U.S., Australia and Africa, said
Wednesday that they are seeking information about his whereabouts
following a media report in Shanghai that he had been detained by
Chinese authorities.
Sundance Resources Ltd. (SDL.AU) and Moly Mines Ltd. (MOL.AU),
two Australia-based companies in which Mr. Liu is a major
shareholder, said Wednesday that they are seeking clarification of
the report.
Mr. Liu's primary investment vehicle, Sichuan Hanlong Group, is
in the midst of a 1.38-billion-Australian-dollar (US$1.43 billion)
buyout of the shares it doesn't already own in Sundance, an
iron-ore developer focused on Africa. It is also pursuing a major
project in Nevada.
His detention was reported Wednesday by Shanghai Securities
News, one of three major Shanghai newspapers devoted to market
news. The newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying the tycoon was
detained along with his ex-wife before they returned to his home
province of Sichuan, in southwestern China, after the conclusion of
annual legislative meetings in Beijing. The 47-year-old Mr. Liu
wasn't a participant in the meetings.
Other members of his family, including his current wife, were
detained in Sichuan, the newspaper said.
The report, which didn't provide further details, couldn't be
independently confirmed.
A spokesman for Beijing's municipal police department said he
didn't have any immediate information on the matter. Officials for
the provincial police in Sichuan couldn't be reached to
comment.
Police investigators in China routinely detain people for
extended periods without charging them, disclosing the detention or
allowing those detained access to an attorney.
In the Sichuan capital of Chengdu, Hanlong officials, including
the company's spokeswoman, said they didn't have any information
about Mr. Liu after trying unsuccessfully to reach him. Mr. Liu is
also chairman of chemical maker Sichuan Jinlu Group Co.
(000510.SZ), which likewise said in a stock-exchange notice that it
had no information about him: "The company can't reach Mr. Liu Han
by telephone at the moment," it said.
Sundance Chairman George Jones said Wednesday that he doesn't
know Mr. Liu's whereabouts but said he hopes to learn more on
Thursday at a previously scheduled meeting with Hanlong
representatives in the Australian city of Perth. "We should have
more clarity about where things stand after those meetings," Mr.
Jones said in an interview.
In the U.S., Hanlong is the principal financial backer and
future customer of a $1.3 billion molybdenum-mining project that
recently began construction in Eureka, Nev. The mine itself is run
by Colorado-based General Moly Inc. (GMO, GMO.T), in which Hanlong
holds a stake. General Moly executives couldn't be reached.
Mr. Liu shot to prominence in global mining circles in recent
years by pledging more than $2 billion to resource companies around
the world through Hanlong. In 2010, Australia's government toasted
Mr. Liu as the country's largest single private foreign investor
from China after he bought into a molybdenum miner there.
Molybdenum is used to harden steel for advanced applications such
as piping for nuclear-power plants.
Last year, Shanghai-based wealth-tracking service Hurun Report
estimated Mr. Liu's net worth at $1 billion. Last December, the
tycoon was the subject of a profile in The Wall Street Journal.
Over the past year or so, Mr. Liu's business empire has been
shaken. The global downturn in commodity prices has made some of
his mine bids look less appealing, analysts said. Last year,
Australia's Sundance said Chinese regulators required Mr. Liu to
reduce his offer price for the company because of market
weakness.
More recently, according to Sundance, Mr. Liu's Chinese lenders
told him to team up with a state-owned company if he wanted to
complete his Sundance buyout. Hanlong's slow progress has prompted
Sundance to consider other suitors, according to the Australian
company.
In 2012, a handful of Mr. Liu's former Hanlong deputies and
their family members were charged in Australia's highest-profile
insider-trading probe in years. One of them was jailed after
admitting guilt, while another fled to China where he has been
unreachable. Australian prosecutors haven't identified Mr. Liu as a
suspect.
In a late-2010 interview with the Journal, Mr. Liu joked that
controversy had dogged him throughout his business career, starting
in the 1990s when he began trading in China's nascent
commodity-futures markets and drew the ire of regulators and fellow
investors. Once, he recalled in the interview, his car was shot up
by another investors angered by losses he suffered because of Mr.
Liu's aggressive investment style. "They call me, Liu Han, the only
survivor'," he said.
In China, Mr. Liu is known primarily as a benefactor of schools
in his native Sichuan. Most of his investments are held through his
wholly owned Hanlong, which boasts a variety of assets, including
infrastructure, winemaking and mining interests. Hanlong shares its
Chengdu headquarters with Sichuan Hongda Group Co., a large
chemical group Mr. Liu helped launch, which is now run by a
cousin.
Liu Canglong, the cousin, told Chengdu media on Wednesday, that
he hasn't been in contact with Liu Han in recent days.
-- Chuin-Wei Yap and Yang Jie in Beijing contributed to this
article.
Write to Gillian Tan at gillian.tan@wsj.com and James T. Areddy
at james.areddy@wsj.com.
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