2019 brings more record profits for Wolves owner Fosun
Wolves owner Fosun saw profits and turnover grow strongly in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.
The Chinese group's revenue was up 31 per cent to £16.2 billion with the profit figure ahead 10 per cent at a record £1.69bn.
It was the eighth year in a row profits had grown for Fosun which was founded in 1992.
The company completed an organisational restructure last month with the new core management team putting greater emphasis on the strategic growth drivers, and will also help strengthen its overall industry operational capability.
It is building an elite management team directed by Fosun's cultural values and is now positioned as an "innovation-driven consumer group".
The next strategic focus will be on strengthening Fosun's existing industries and regional operations and continuing to enhance the competitiveness and operational efficiency of its industry operations.
Wolves, which Fosun bought in 2016 for £30 million, is part of the 'happiness' business unit which had revenue of £4.89bn, a rise of 26 per cent. It made up 30 per cent of the group total. Profit was £370m – up six per cent.
Fosun Pharma is involved in innovative and international development including its pharmaceutical research and development system. Revenue was £3.23bn, up 15 per cent.
Fosun Tourism Group further consolidated its leading position in the resort industry with revenue of £1.97bn – an increase of seven per cent.
In the Wealth business, the revenue of Fosun Insurance Portugal surged by 40 per cent year-on-year in 2019.
Chairman Guo Guangchang said: "Over the past decade, Fosun carried out a number of expansions and explorations in different regions, investment areas and industries.
"Now, we will enter into a new phase of development, which is the optimisation of our asset allocation and focusing on core industries, in order to establish Fosun as the top-notch enterprise that achieves industry-leading positions in all of our core businesses."
After the Covid-19 outbreak at the beginning of 2020 Fosun said it immediately acted to fight the epidemic in the early stage using its global resources to support China and the rest of the world as the virus spread.
As part of this the company donated 2,300 pieces of medical protection clothing to health workers in Wolverhampton.
At the end of March, Fosun had deployed 2.52 million medical supplies including masks, protective suits, nucleic acid detection kits to overseas countries including the UK and Italy.
Meanwhile medical staff from 27 hospitals under Fosun, including Wuhan Jihe Hospital, were on the frontline during the Chinese New Year holiday.
Mr Guangchang said: "Now, with the domestic crisis gradually subsiding and the outbreak of overseas epidemic, Fosun's future strategies will be divided into two parts: at home and abroad.
"In China, as the community gradually returns to normal, and the consumption momentum starts to accelerate, the company will make every effort to quickly bring the domestic business back to the right track, so as to seize the opportunity of consumption rebound after the epidemic.
"On the other hand, as the outbreak has brought changes to people's lifestyle and consumption habits, the company will take advantage of the situation to propose three strategic directions, namely 'family', 'healthcare' and 'online', aiming to turn crisis into opportunities and speed up the transformation and upgrading of its products in terms of marketing, innovation, supply chain and digitalisation.
"For overseas business, on the one hand, the company will continue to fulfill its global responsibility to protect its overseas employees and customers, while leveraging its global supply chain to support the world to fight against the epidemic.
He added: "During the 28 years of operation since its establishment, Fosun has always stayed vigilant in peacetime and made stable yet bold progress for sustainable growth.
"Facing the global crisis, we believe that Fosun can deal with all possible issues calmly and even turn crisis into opportunity by stepping up innovations, fostering evolution and enhancing our capability.
"As an enterprise with global vision, Fosun will be able to leverage its worldwide resources to identify more opportunities in this crisis. It will also actively pursue asset optimisation and integration of its businesses, with a view to developing into a world-class consumer group and creating more values for shareholders."
