Fosun resumes its overseas shopping spree with US$52m purchase of Brazil asset manager

Chinese insurance and investment conglomerate Fosun International snapped up Brazilian asset manager Guide Investimentos for US$52 million on Tuesday, five days after it announced the acquisition of French luxury brand Lanvin.

“Fosun will pay 170 million Brazilian reals [US$52 million] for the acquisition, and an additional 120 million reals [US$37 million] depending on the company’s future performance,” the company said in a press release. Fosun did not disclose the details of the stake it has acquired, when contacted by the South China Morning Post.

Guide Investimentos, a Sao Paulo-based financial services company, serves more than 50,000 individual and institutional investors, according to the press release. It is a subsidiary of Banco Indusval, a Brazilian commercial bank, which will retain up to a 20 per cent stake in the company.

“Fosun is regaining pace – it seems like a signal that political pressure is easing for the company,” said

Shaun Rein, the managing director of Shanghai-based market intelligence company China Market Research and author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order.

“Brazil is attractive given its market size and population. The asset prices are also attractive there, compared with those in Southeast Asia, which gained a lot of investment from China last year,” he said.

Tuesday’s deal is the second acquisition of a Brazilian financial institution by Fosun. In July 2016, the group bought Brazilian fund manager Rio Bravo Investimentos, its first acquisition in Latin America.