When G-Resources announced plans last November to sell its main asset, a highly profitable gold mine responsible for more than 99 per cent of its revenues, there was only minor public stirring. Behind the scenes, however, investors soon began expressing concern. This week that disquiet broke into the open with BlackRock’s first criticism of an investment in at least two decades.

Investors fear the Hong Kong-listed group, which has changed names and businesses several times since it went public as a packaging manufacturer in 1994, is about to reduce itself to a shell without, as yet, the expertise to pursue its stated plans of investing in financial services.

Assuming G-Resource’s sale of the Martabe mine is approved, it will have about $1bn of cash to spend.