Fosun international, China’s largest private conglomerate by revenue, is reportedly preparing to set up a $1bn global corporate venturing fund.
News provider Financial Times (FT) said Fosun had approached sovereign wealth funds among others to be its partner as it hunts for deals in the consumer, financial services, green energy and healthcare sectors.
Liang Xinjun, chief executive officer, told the FT that he and John Snow, former US Treasury secretary and adviser to the Fosun board, this month met Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds in the Uniter Arab Emirates’ Dubai and Abu Dhabi and Doha, Qatar.
Liang told the FT: “There is a window of two to three years when assets in Europe and the US will be undervalued. We are looking for sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and endowment funds which can help us scale up our investments in general.
“On our own, we are only comfortable with investing $50m [to] $200m in each project.”
Earlier this month, Fosun signed a joint venture with Denmark-based private equity firm Axcell to look for northern European brands to jointly invest in and, since 2010, Fosun has set up two investment funds with Carlyle and Prudential Financial, of $100m and $600m respectively.
In November, steel manufacturing company Nanjing Steel, a subsidiary of the Fosun, started to set up a corporate venturing fund, to be known as Shanghai Fosun Venture Capital, with a RMB100m ($15.8m) contribution.