shares of china merchants bank fell sharply after chinas anticorruption watchdog said it would investigate the lenders former chief executive days after he was removed from his position china merchants bank shares fell as much as 11 to 4615 hong kong dollars us588 on monday morning they were last 93 lower at hk4720 taking yeartodate losses to about 22 the drop came after chinas central commission for discipline inspection said late friday that former ceo tian huiyu was suspected of seriously violating discipline and laws without providing additional details china merchants bank earlier in the week said its board had voted to remove mr tian from his positions at the company subject to further assignment the shenzhenbased lender also reported its firstquarter results on friday posting a 13 rise in profit although it reported that 257 of its loans to the propertydevelopment industry were nonperforming at the end of march compared with 139 in december daiwa capital analysts michael zeng and leon qi said in a note that china merchants banks management change was a step in the right direction and its firstquarter results seemed robust despite a slowdown in loan growth the analysts lowered their target price to hk6500 from hk7400 to factor in weak market sentiment but kept a buy call on the stock on expectations that loan growth will reaccelerate once the impact of the pandemic eases citi analysts wrote said in a note that chinas investigation and the worsethanexpected asset quality may weigh on china merchants banks share price performance in the short term the us investment bank maintained a buy rating and its target price of hk7384 saying it expects the lender to undergo a smooth management transition as the companys new executive named to oversee operations chief financial officer wang liang has rich working experience and stands a chance to officially assume mr tians roles nomura analysts maintained a buy rating but reduced their target price to hk7578 from hk8829 noting firstquarter profit was in line with estimates and forecasting lower growth in noninterest income would be offset by lower operating expenses going forward regarding the management change they said that despite nearterm uncertainty we believe the longterm outlook remains intact