Meanwhile, finance ministers in the European Union gave their blessing to proposed regulations that would curtail the activities of hedge funds and private-equity firms.

The preferred measure of quarterly profit at private-equity firms is 'economic net income, ' rather than ordinary net income or something as humdrum as cash flow.

Since Mr Huang's arrest hundreds of its stores have been closed and Bain capital, an American private-equity firm, has been brought in to shore up its capital.