Anbang mess tightens state grip on China Inc

SHANGHAI: Beijing’s unprecedented takeover of private insurer Anbang confirms that toxic risks lurk in the world’s second-largest economy while signalling the state’s tightening grip on China Inc. despite reform rhetoric, analysts said.

Government regulators seized control of the Anbang Insurance Group on Friday, saying its debt-fuelled foreign acquisition binge left the company in financial peril and that high-flying founder and former chairman Wu Xiaohui would be prosecuted for fraud.