The costly love affairs of China's entrepreneurs

BEIJING - The old Chinese saying, "No hero can resist the beauty of a woman," remains relevant today, as the love affairs of China's business tycoons are not only making tabloid headlines but may also be affecting stock markets.

Wang Shi, 61, board chairman of Vanke, China's largest property developer, is allegedly involved in a love affair with Tian Pujun, the 31-year-old star of a popular TV drama.

Wang, a high-profile entrepreneur currently studying at Harvard, could not be reached for comment, but he retweeted a message on Sina Weibo in which the writer called on the public to focus on Wang's career instead of the gossip.

Pan Shiyi, another property development giant as well as a close friend of Wang's, joked on Weibo that Wang is rumored to cook for his girlfriend every day.

Meanwhile, microbloggers have enthusiastically and amusingly warned Pan's wife, Zhang Xin, to "keep an eye" on her husband.

Wang's unconfirmed love affair seems to have influenced his business. Vanke's stocks rose by more than 5 percent in the week since microbloggers started to spread the word about his alleged affair.

According to figures released on Monday, Vanke's sales revenue topped 13.7 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) in October, marking the company's best performance this year.

Zhou Biwen, a real estate expert at Beijing Institute of Technology, said the love affair may turn out to be good press for Vanke.

Wang got his start in the corn business in the south China city of Shenzhen in the 1980s before building up Vanke as the country's largest property developer. The nearly bald businessman with a thin gray beard has also courted fame by climbing the world's highest mountains, including Mount Qomolangma, when he was 52.

However, the gossip surrounding him now is not all about stock gains. If a divorce is in their future, it is not clear how Wang and his wife will split their assets, including properties, in accordance with Chinese laws, but estimates on compensation are running high.

China has seen an increase in divorces involving senior managers in recent years in addition to the country's overall rise in divorces.

Before Wang Shi's alleged affair surfaced, Wang Wei, former CEO of Tudou, China's YouTube-style video sharing website, went through a costly divorce in which his now-ex-wife received a hefty compensation package. The divorce reportedly hindered Tudou from smoothly listing on NASDAQ.

Yuan Jinhua, vice president of Sany Heavy, China's largest heavy equipment manufacturer, had to relinquish stock worth billions of yuan to his former wife in what media have labeled the most expensive divorce.

Sun Taoran, a senior manager of Blue Focus, a leading PR firm in China, lost about 4.59 percent of the company's total stocks, or about 167 million yuan, in his divorce.

These senior managers' divorces may not have been the result of extramarital affairs, but large amounts of stock changing hands in some cases have piled uncertainties onto companies' operations.

Chinese people traditionally tend to conceal divorces or love affairs that they see as unseemly, and it is rare to see reports on the families of the senior managers of China's listed companies.

Experts have said that if a divorce affects the stock market, the holders of those stocks have the right to be notified.