Wolves owner Fosun hit by fall in profits over pandemic
Wolves owner Fosun has reported a fall in profits and turnover for last year as it was hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Total revenue was £15.1 billion from £16.2bn a year earlier with net profit down from £1.69bn to £890 million for the Chinese conglomerate.
Fosun, which includes Fosun Pharma, has been involved in developing a Covid-19 vaccine that has been used in China.
Wolves, which Fosun bought in 2016 for £30m, is part of the Happiness business unit, which went from a £50m profit in 2019 to a £31m loss.
The fall in profits last year followed eight successive years of growth for Fosun which was founded in 1992.
During the year Fosun, which also owns Thomas Cook, bought brands including Shede Spirits and Jinhui Liquor.
Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International, said, "The year 2020 might be the most challenging year for Fosun, yet it was also the best year. After the pandemic, we continue with the "wartime mechanism" and maintain the fighting spirit that we have developed during the global combat against Covid-19.
"This has resulted in our resilient business performance throughout the year. "
Mr Guangchang said Fosun had evolved and become even stronger.
Faced with the pandemic outbreak at the beginning of 2020, Fosun switched to a "wartime" mode, mobilizing its global employees, and industrial resources to work around the clock.
Fosun has altogether deployed three million pieces of medical supplies and more than 50 million pieces to China and overseas countries respectively to support the frontline battle against the pandemic and fulfill its corporate social responsibility.
Challenges
A year ago Fosun Pharma and Germany's BioNTech reached an agreement to jointly promote the research and development and commercialization of the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine.
Mr Guangchang said: "Having steered through the once-in-a-century global crisis, we firmly believe Fosun not only can calmly cope with all kinds of unexpected challenges but also turn adversities into opportunities by evolving our strategy continually, upgrading our technology innovation and our organization.
"With vision and our globalized resources, Fosun will emphasise on creating excellent products and also focus on our customers. Meanwhile we will also identify good opportunities in the market to accelerate our asset optimisation and integration to our businesses, so as to become a world-class family-oriented consumer group."
The health business unit saw a rise in profit from £159.5m to £186.6m, the wealth unit was down from £874m to £504.1m, the insurance unit up from £84.1m to £128.4m, the asset management unit down from £789.9m to £375.7m and the intelligent manufacturing unit fell from £363.9m to £233.1m.
Fosun also has an interest in Canada’s Cirque du Soleil theatre group and owns French luxury holidays company Club Med.
