Steel manufacturing company Nanjing Steel, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate Fosun International, is establishing a corporate venturing fund, to be known as Shanghai Fosun Venture Capital, and will contribute RMB100m ($15.8m) towards setting it up, according to a report in China-based venture capital and private equity web portal PEdaily on 27 October.
The fund isn’t the first minority investment by Nanjing this year. In May the company paid $50m to acquire a 10% stake in All Wealthy Capital, entering into an iron ore supply agreement with the firm as well.
The fund follows a $100m joint venturing fund launched last year by Fosun and US-based asset management firm the Carlyle Group, partly to target international venturing opportunities with a Chinese link, but mostly to invest in China-based businesses. More recently, Fosun invested $100m in a $600m private equity fund jointly established with insurance corporation Prudential, in January.