Fosun targets health care after 21.4pc jump in first-half profit
Chairman Guo Guangchang criticises China’s P2P industry as ‘by and large a fraud’
Guo Guangchang, known as China’s Warren Buffett, said on Wednesday that his conglomerate Fosun International is putting health care higher up on its business agenda while slamming the country’s burgeoning peer-to-peer lending industry as “by and large a fraud”.
“My recent trip to the US reinforced my belief that one should strive to live longer,” he told investors and the press in a post-earnings question-and-answer session in Hong Kong. “Since the first half [of the year], we have placed a particular emphasis on health care as we aim to build an integrated system in China.”
Fosun, China’s largest non-state-owned conglomerate, posted a 21.4 per cent jump in first-half net profit to 4.39 billion yuan as its investments in medical and tourism-related businesses such as Club Méditerranée bore fruit.
Guo, Fosun’s co-founder and chairman and also China’s 19th-wealthiest person this year, according to Forbes, has taken the business on a worldwide shopping spree of late, pouring money in assets including US insurance broker Ironshore, Indian drugmaker Gland Pharma, French resort operator Club Med and English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Fosun has roughly finished its investments in developed markets, and is now turning to emerging markets, as indicated in our acquisitions of assets in Russia and Brazil
Wednesday’s briefing, where participants were required to write their questions on a piece of paper should they intend to raise any to the management, has been Guo’s second high-profile appearance in the city since he briefly vanished last year.