Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang’s Fosun conglomerate plans to make its biggest divestment this year as the owner of French resort group Club Med and English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers tries to tackle a Rmb260bn ($36bn) debt pile.After the sale of its majority shareholding in Shanghai-listed Nanjing Nangang Iron & Steel United, Fosun’s asset sales will hit $4.8bn this year, according to Dealogic data reviewed by the Financial Times. The Hong Kong-listed group divested $100mn of assets in 2021.
Guo’s group has become a poster child of the problems facing overleveraged companies as China’s economy cools from a contraction in the property sector and disruptive Covid-19 pandemic policies.
“Fosun has sold whatever it can this year so as to ‘break arms to survive’,” said a Shanghai-based bank manager who used to work with Fosun. “But many falling assets are hard to sell, like real estate and biopharmaceutical assets.”