It is great news for travel and tourism business, Chinese conglomerate Fosun International is urging in talks with investment banks to list its tourism business to raise at least US $500 million.
The Tourism & Culture Group, Fosun’s tourism unit, includes a resort operator Club Med, a Chinese joint venture with tour operator Thomas Cook Group and the luxury Atlantis Resort Hotel in Sanya, Hainan province.
This Shanghai-based parent company is considering spinning off the unit as early as next year and is likely to pick Hong Kong as the listing venue. The company has not decided on the fundraising size yet but two of the people said the deal would raise at least US$500 million.
In the first six months of this year, the “Happiness Ecosystem” one of the programme by Forsun, which comprises its tourism and leisure and consumer and lifestyle businesses, posted a profit of US$78 million on revenues of Rmb6.5 billion, up 37 per cent and 12 per cent respectively from a year earlier, according to the parent’s interim results.
Fosun did not straight away counter to a request for comment for the potential spin-off.
Fosun was co-founded by Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, and it is one of the China’s most acquisitive overseas dealmakers. In September, it listed Israeli subsidiary Sisram Medical in Hong Kong through a HK$977 million (US$125 million) IPO. Sisram is a producer of medical aesthetics devices.
