“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, March 20 (Researcher Jin Bo) According to recent market news, after selling 5.6% of the shares in the Portuguese Commercial Bank (Millennium BCP) at the beginning of the year, Fosun International (00656.HK), a subsidiary of Fosun, is currently preparing to sell the remaining 20.03% of its shares.

Allegedly, the 20% stake in Banco Comercial de Portugal is currently worth around €836 million (approximately HK$7.11 billion).

At the end of last year and January of this year, Fosun International reduced its holdings twice and cashed out 40,83.7 million euros. Its shareholding has dropped from 29.95% previously to 20.03% now.

In addition, it is also reported that Fosun International is also seeking to sell all or part of its shares in Atlantis Sanya, Hainan. The project is owned by Fosun Tourism and Culture Group (01992.HK), a subsidiary of Fosun International. Since 2018, Fosun International has invested 11 billion yuan in the project.

Although the Fosun government did not publicly respond to this news, in the light of Fosun's ongoing “sales and sales” in international and domestic markets in recent years, whether they want to sell shares in the Portuguese Commercial Bank or the Sanya cultural tourism project, it is an unsurprising scene in Fosun's “slimming campaign” and strategic contraction process: can we talk about a price acceptable to both parties is probably the key step behind the smokescreen war.

As a member of Fosun's family, Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun International, has rarely appeared in public for the past few years. This famous entrepreneur, who came from a farmhouse in Zhejiang but miraculously became a regular on the Forbes list, can't be easily guessed by the outside world after decades of ups and downs in his entrepreneurial career.

Is “the light boat has passed 10,000 mountains” and “the darkest hour” is over; or is Guanshan still heavy and “endless scenery is at a dangerous peak”; or are real difficulties still ahead, and the current series of “disconnected houses” are just a prelude to winter thunder? As a “hostage of history,” no outsider has any way of knowing.

At this time, what has strengthened people's hearts the most is whether the founder still has a tenacious entrepreneurial spirit.

As the captain of a huge corporate fleet, when faced with huge unknown risks, only by clenching your teeth, using vision, perseverance, and maybe the necessary luck, can you overcome rapids, penetrate uncertainty, and maintain the day when the clouds clear and fog dissipate and the wind is calm and quiet.

Will Guo Guangchang be the last lucky person?

Guo Guangchang's Growth History

As one of the most well-known private entrepreneurs on the beach, Guo Guangchang's ups and downs in life and entrepreneurship stories are already widely known.

Guo Guangchang was born in 1967 in a farmhouse in Dongyang, Zhejiang. He didn't read well before he was ten years old. In 1977, the country resumed the college entrance examination system. The father, who is said to be quite farsighted, said: Study seriously in the future, and stop helping the family do agricultural work or plow weeds.

He is a direct beneficiary of “Knowledge Changes Destiny.” First, he was admitted to key Dongyang Middle School in Zhejiang Province, and was admitted to the Department of Philosophy at Fudan University in 1985. Stayed to work in school in 1989.

The company is called “Guangxin” and was the first to conduct market research. In 1993, a Taiwanese company invested in Shanghai and needed to find a professional consulting firm to make suggestions. Guangxin was awarded the contract, and it is said that Guo Guangchang earned the first 1 million in his life as a result.

Since then, Guangxin changed its name to Fosun, and was later interpreted by the outside world as the “Star of Fudan.”

In June 1993, Guo Guangchang saw a historic opportunity for the country to promote the development of Shanghai and develop Pudong, specializing in real estate sales and biomedicine.

At the time, Fosun represented a real estate sales agency positioned as “designed for families studying abroad,” and few people paid attention to it. Guo Guangchang had previously taken the TOEFL test and also thought about studying abroad. Through his contacts, he found the home addresses of people involved in studying abroad, and then sent advertisements door-to-door. It is said that at the end of that year, Fosun earned its first 10 million yuan.

Since three of Fosun's “Five Musketeers” graduated in genetic engineering, they have an advantage in biopharmaceuticals, so they are also working in the biomedical field. They were very lucky to find a novel genetic diagnostic product successfully researched by the School of Life Sciences at their alma mater - PCR hepatitis B diagnostic reagent.

In 1995, Fosun successfully introduced this product to the market, thus earning Fosun's first 100 million yuan. Fosun Hi-Tech became the first private high-tech enterprise in Shanghai, and Fosun Pharmaceuticals became the pillar industry of the Fosun Group in the future.

In July 1998, Fosun Pharmaceutical was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, raising 350 million yuan in capital at one time. Through the opening of capital and industry, Fosun earned its first billion dollars.

As a result, Guo Guangchang realized the magic of the capital market and began to think about how to make more connections between industry and capital. Since then, Fosun started as a technology research and development enterprise, and gradually transformed into a leading domestic private mixed management investment group. At its peak, Fosun directly or indirectly held hundreds of companies, including many listed companies. The scope of investment covered various fields such as biomedicine, cultural tourism, real estate, steel, insurance, and banking.

In July 2007, Fosun International, with 58% of Guo Guangchang's shares, achieved an overall listing in Hong Kong, raising HK$12.8 billion, making it the third-largest IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that year and the sixth-largest IPO in Hong Kong history.

In March 2023, Hurun released the “2023 Hurun Global Rich List”. Guo Guangchang ranked 432nd in the list with a wealth of 44 billion yuan.

Fosun slimming

After going public in Hong Kong and opening up international capital market channels, Fosun embarked on a new journey on a broader stage. Beginning in the second decade of the 21st century, Fosun made great strides to “buy buy buy” all over the world. Like well-known companies such as Wanda, it became an iconic enterprise for Chinese companies to go abroad and carry out overseas mergers and acquisitions at the time.

However, the aggressive strategy of this specific period easily changed time, and laid the groundwork for a large amount of debt and strategic contraction.

According to Fosun International's 2023 interim report, as of June 30, 2023, Fosun International's total debt was about $220,924 billion, and cash and bank balances and term deposits were about $114.68 billion.

Judging from this, the news recently revealed by Fosun on the sale of Portuguese Commercial Bank shares and the Sanya Atlantis cultural tourism project did not come out of nowhere. It is worth noting that in recent years, Fosun International and Fosun Travel & Culture have disposed of tens of billions of dollars in assets, involving various industries such as steel, cultural tourism, finance, and consumption.

For example, in the steel sector, on December 4, 2023, Fosun International announced the completion of the sale of 60% of Nanjing Nangang Steel's shares. According to previous announcements, the sale price was 13.58 billion yuan.

Earlier, on January 5, 2023, Fosun International announced that it plans to sell shares in 4 companies, including 25.7033% of Tianjin Jianlong Steel Industrial Co., Ltd. and 26.6667% of Jianlong Steel Holdings Co., Ltd., for a total transaction price of 6.7 billion yuan.

In the field of cultural tourism consumption, in the first half of 2023, Fosun Travel & Culture received approximately 283 million yuan in revenue by disposing of resorts and selling and leasing back Club Med resorts.

In July 2023, Fosun International announced that its indirect subsidiary Yuyuan Co., Ltd. (600655.SH) plans to sell about 5% of Jinhui Liquor (603919.SH) shares for 599 million yuan. Meanwhile, in September and November 2022, Yuyuan Co., Ltd. and its co-actors announced plans to sell 13% of Jinhui Liquor's shares for 1,891 billion yuan.

In 2022, Fosun International withdrew from a number of assets, including shares in the secondary market of Tsingtao Brewery, shares in the secondary market of Zhongshan Public Corporation, and some shares of Yongan Financial Insurance.

According to Fosun, the group began disposal of non-strategic and non-core assets in 2020, and has increased its asset withdrawal efforts since June 2022. According to the 2023 Interim Report, Fosun International's total debt has dropped from 261,118 billion yuan on June 30, 2022 to 220,902 billion yuan, and the debt has decreased by more than 40 billion yuan.

After several years of “slimming down and fitness,” Guo Guangchang made a public appearance at the Shanghai Zhejiang Business Annual Meeting in January of this year. In his speech, he emphasized, “You must survive and be prepared before the opportunity comes. Opportunities are reserved for those who survive.”

To a certain extent, Guo Guangchang also explained part of the reason for the storm: “For Fosun, before, we felt like there were 'mines' everywhere, 'mining' around the world, and 'mining' in various industries, forming our ability to 'mine'. But now I think that some industries are not suitable for our long-term development, and in the future, we should focus more on industries where we have already developed an advantage.”

Where to focus, and what industries has Fosun already developed an advantage in? Guo Guangchang's answer is: one is biomedicine and health; the second is the cultural tourism sector, especially snow and ice tourism. “This is Fosun's strength, and we must continue to step up our efforts.”

“If you cross the rapids, you will definitely be able to sail forward in the future.” Guo Guangchang said this during his speech.