Portugal gateway for Fosun investments
In an interview with Diário de NotícIas, Wang Qunbin said that the group — the largest private Chinese investor in Portugal with interests in the banking sector (BCP), health (Luz Saúde) and insurance (Fidelidade) — had been “cautious” when it began to invest in Portugal given that at the time the Portuguese economy was in a recession.
However, he says that his doubts were cleared up over time and that now Portugal is “a gateway to European investment.”
“Portugal represents stability for Fosun: we have excellent assets and strong asset management and management teams in the country, the political environment is very stable, even after the change in government and the economy has recovered well,” he says.
“Furthermore, Portugal is a gateway for our investment in Europe but is, at the same time, the gateway for our investment to other Portuguese-speaking countries,” said the CEO of the Fosun Group.
Satisfied with its experience in Portugal, Wang Qunbin calls Portugal his “second home” and says that the purchase of Fidelidade was one of the group’s best international investments, highlighting the opportunity of “working together with other Portuguese companies, thereby leveraging on the advantages of each while taking advantage of China’s period of growth in global resources to create even more business opportunities.”
In Europe, the Chinese group had already acquired large tourism giants such as Club Med and Thomas Cook which has since proved a headache for Fosun given the company’s collapse this month after the Chinese giant decided not to inject more capital into one of the world’s oldest travel agencies which filed for bankruptcy leaving thousands of holidaymakers stranded in European holiday destinations, including 500 in the Algarve.