Fosun International bets on new sci/tech board to drive future growth

Fosun International, one of the largest private conglomerates in the Chinese mainland, is betting big on the setup of the much-awaited science and technology innovation board, as a big push for the company’s quest to be a technology giant and stalwart innovator.

“The newly-launched board, which allows the floats from unprofitable tech firms, including pre-revenue/pre-profit biotech star-ups, is a huge boon to Fosun International,” Wang Qunbin, Fosun International's chief executive officer, told those at an annual results conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

“For companies like Fosun International, whose core business is driven by technology and innovation, with a wide range of investment in pre-profit projects, such as the biopharma firm Shanghai Henlius Biotech, the new sci-tech board offers better and earlier access to the A-share market. Previously, it was very hard for start-ups of this kind to get listed at home,” Wang said.

"Looking ahead, technology and innovation the world over are developing more rapidly than any other period in history. This spells potentially huge opportunities for us," said Guo Guangchang, founder and chairman of Fosun International.

The Hong Kong-listed conglomerate, founded in 1992 by Guo and four others with a starting fund of 38,000 yuan, said on Tuesday that net profit for the 12 months to December increased 1.9 percent year-on-year to 13.4 billion yuan ($2 billion), marking the seventh straight year of growth.

Revenue during the period jumped 24 percent year-on-year to 109.4 billion yuan, for the very first time reaching the 100 billion yuan level.

The company decided to distribute a full-year dividend of 0.37 yuan per share.

One of the major contributors to profit growth comes from the three-year tourism arm Fosun Tourism Group, which raised $428 million in its initial public offering in Hong Kong last December and turned a profit in its first year of listing.

Guo said the company continued to bankroll big efforts in more than 70 new projects, with a combined investment of 28.5 billion yuan. Over half of the projects came from overseas, including Austrian luxury lingerie and legwear maker Wolford, Paris fashion house Lanvin, French margarine maker St Hubert and Tsingtao Brewery.