“It’s time to consolidate our global resources to show that we can help others,” Guo said in a phone conference on Wednesday. “We can also mobilise our production capacity in China to create a synergy with the international businesses.”

China’s Big Tech companies are using their roles in fighting world’s largest health crisis to turbocharge HealthTech

The pandemic brought an immediate challenge to Fosun, which reshuffled its top management team in February after an acquisition spree over the past five years. In that process, the group added the Thomas Cook trademark, ClubMed, Cirque do Soleil and Lanvin to its portfolio, most of which are facing a crunch.

The pandemic, first traced to the epicentre of Hubei province in China, has affected more than 850,000 people and claimed over 40,000 lives, triggering city lockdowns, market crashes and unprecedented policy responses globally.

Fosun announced on March 16 that its subsidiary Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical would partner with German next generation immunotherapy company BioNTech to develop mRNA vaccine, known as BNT162, to treat the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

Fosun will invest US$50 million for the exclusive right to commercialise the vaccine in China.

Unlike typical vaccines which use either dead or weakened form of virus to jump-start the body’s natural defences, mRNA vaccine relies on RNA to start the production of proteins similar enough to the virus to trigger the body’s development of antibodies effective against the actual target.

Fosun names new chiefs in one of biggest management reshuffles since 2017 after overseas buying spree

Chen Qiyu, co-chief executive of Fosun International, expects the first clinical trial to start in late April and “products could be launched in one year, at the earliest, subject to regulators’ approval.”

Fosun Pharma has received emergency approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration for its test kits to help detect the virus. The company’s test kit can complete an analysis of 96 samples in two hours, it said.

“The production has started with a capacity of more than 2 million pieces per week,” he said. “We have started selling or donating the test kits to other countries such as Portugal, Hungary, Germany, India and South Korea.”

Thomas Cook’s demise scuttles Fosun’s goal of creating a global leisure empire

The impact on its insurance business in Portugal where it acquired Fidelidade, the country’s largest, in 2014, was limited, it said.

Fosun International derived about 55 per cent of its revenue in 2019 from China, 13 per cent from Portugal and about 32 per cent from other countries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By business types, the group earned 37 per cent of its profits in 2019 from investments, 26 per cent from “happy lifestyle” and 17 per cent from pharmaceutical and health care, and 13 per cent from insurance.

“A great company can get stronger after it survives the economic headwinds,” Guo said. “We are looking for opportunities arising from the health care crisis and seeking to drastically conduct innovations in our products and services as a way of making breakthroughs.”

The group reported a 10 per cent increase in profits to 14.8 billion yuan (US$2.09 billion) for 2019 on the back of a 31 per cent jump in revenue to 143 billion yuan. Its shares declined 2.5 per cent to HK$8.74 on Wednesday.

Additional reporting by Peggy Sito