Fantasia Founder Keeps Investors Guessing With Online Posts

(Bloomberg) -- Investors searching for clarity after a shock default by Chinese developer Fantasia Holdings Group Co. won’t find much in its founder’s social media posts.

A Chinese Weibo account named “BaoFantasia” has the personal posts of Zeng Jie, an external spokesperson for Fantasia told Bloomberg News. Minutes after the company announced on Oct. 4 it failed to pay off a maturing $205.7 million dollar, the account shared the poster for “Darkest Hour,” a movie about Winston Churchill’s early days as British prime minister during World War II. Subsequent posts on the account, which has been active only since Sept. 27, have included graphics of Monkey King, a Chinese mythical figure, with Fantasia logos.

The uncertainty has swirled while the firm’s default helped fuel sharp market declines in Chinese dollar bonds and stoked concern of contagion from China Evergrande Group’s debt crisis. 

The posts by Zeng, who established Fantasia in 1996 and is widely reported to be a niece of former China Vice President Zeng Qinghong, have come amid limited comments from the company. Investors are keen for information as the developer said just two weeks before the default that it had “no liquidity issues.”

Zeng, known as Baby and who is Fantasia’s controlling shareholder, issued a letter to Fantasia staff on Friday that the firm “wouldn’t abandon or shirk its responsibilities,” according to the spokesperson. 

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