High profile Chinese financier Levin Zhu Yunlai has resigned as CEO of China International Capital Corp, an investment bank that has multiple connections with the entertainment industry.
Zhu founded CICC, which was the first Sino-foreign financial institution in China, in 1995. It included China Unicom and Morgan Stanley as founding backers, though Morgan Stanley has since exited.
The departure comes at a time when China is trying to lessen the impact of so-called ‘princelings,’ the offspring of senior Communist Party members and government officials. Zhu, 57, is the son of Zhu Rongli, who was Premier of China between 1998-2003.
His exit however, is a major surprise as it comes at a time when the company is gearing up for an IPO in Hong Kong.
Zhu has multiple interests in the film industry and was last year a speaker at the Variety-sponsored Winston Baker Film Finance Summit in Shanghai.
CICC was named as underwriter of the proposed stock listing for China Film Group.