Fosun and fame

22 January 2014 By John Foley Follow @johnsfoley

The mainland conglomerate started out in property and steel, but really wants to be an investment giant. JPMorgan’s downtown New York offices were a recent trophy; Forbes magazine may be next. What fuels Fosun is what drives China: growing wealth, ambition and easy leverage.

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Fosun International said on Jan. 15 that it expected earnings for the year ending Dec. 31 2013 to increase “remarkably” in comparison with the same period a year earlier. Fosun’s earnings rose 9 percent in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2012.

Hong Kong-listed Fosun spans operations including steel mills, iron ore mining, pharmaceuticals and gold retailing. It operates through wholly-owned investments and stakes in listed companies such as Fosun Pharma and Nanjing Iron & Steel.

Fosun bought 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, the New York office tower, from JPMorgan in October 2013 for $725 million. On Jan. 9 it announced the purchase of an 80 percent stake in Caixa Seguros, a state-owned Portuguese insurer, for 1 billion euros.

The company also put in a bid for Forbes, the U.S.-based magazine and compiler of “rich lists”, according to the Financial Times, in a deal that could reach as much as $475 million. Fosun declined to comment.

Guo Guangchang, the chairman of Fosun and a member of China’s National People’s Congress, told CNBC that the company was learning from the methods of U.S. investor Waren Buffett, and hoped to become Buffett’s “successful disciples in China”.

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