China’s biggest electronics retailer, like its founder, is in trouble

NO ONE epitomises China’s boisterous embrace of modern consumerism better than Huang Guangyu, who transformed a tiny street stall in Beijing into a sprawling network of 1,350 stores. In the process, he became the country’s richest man, worth more than $6.3 billion. His spectacular rise ended abruptly with his arrest in 2008. The authorities belatedly announced the charges against him, of insider trading and bribery, on February 12th.

Gome, the electronic-goods chain that Mr Huang founded, has also had a difficult time of late. 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. …