Fosun International Ltd (復星國際) is considering strategic options for its French luxury resort chain Club Med SAS as the Chinese conglomerate explores ways to cut debt, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The Shanghai-based group has been informally fielding interest from potential buyers of Club Med, the people said on the condition of anonymity.
It could seek to value the business at about US$1.5 billion in any transaction, the people added.
Photo: Reuters
Fosun owns Club Med through its listed leisure arm Fosun Tourism Group (復星旅遊文化集團). Fosun Tourism shares have fallen 19 percent in Hong Kong trading this year, giving it a market value of about HK$10.5 billion (US$1.3 billion).
Club Med is among a number of assets being reviewed by Fosun and there is no certainty it would decide to proceed with any transaction, the people said.
A representative for Fosun said the group has “no plans” to sell Club Med.
Club Med is known for its all-inclusive resorts offering a range of leisure activities from fine dining to yoga, scuba diving and baby gym classes. It operates nearly 80 resorts globally in destinations including the French Alps and the Maldives, according to its Web site.
A consortium led by Fosun bought Paris-based Club Med in a 2015 deal valued at about 939 million euros (US$969 million), beating out Italian investor Andrea Bonomi in a bidding war that lasted for more than a year.
The group expanded Club Med’s business in China before folding it into Fosun Tourism with other business assets.
Fosun, which also owns French fashion house Lanvin, told analysts last month that it is targeting selling as much as US$11 billion of assets in the next 12 months.
It recently agreed to sell a stake in the parent company of Nanjing Iron & Steel Co (南京鋼鐵) for 15 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) as well as a HK$4.4 billion disposal of its holdings in Zhaojin Mining Industry Co (招金礦業).
The Chinese group has told advisers that its domestic food and beverage business is also for sale. It is also weighing strategic options for British baby stroller brand Silver Cross, as well as its investment in electric vehicle battery maker JEVE, other sources said.
Fosun has separately been exploring a transaction involving the Bund Finance Center (外灘金融中心) in Shanghai, the people said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS