Fosun remains interested in buying a stake in Compagnie des Alpes (CDA), as well as eyeing a few other French consumer goods investments.
In an interview with Reuters, the Chinese conglomerate’s Senior Vice-President, Jim Jiannong Qian said that talks with CDA were ongoing.
Qian, who heads Fosun’s tourism arm, added, “In China the ski business is booming now and in 2022 we are launching the winter Olympics. For Compagnie des Alpes it would be a good chance to come to China and it will also help their business in France … The Chinese customer is very interested in ski, like 10 years ago the Chinese people started to drink wine.”
Fosun owns French holiday resorts group Club Med.
Compagnie des Alpes (CDA) operates 11 ski resorts in France and 13 leisure parks and tourist attractions in Europe. It has been open about seeking partners to expand overseas in high-growth markets such as China. There had been speculation that a deal would be announced before the end of last year.
On the release of CDA’s financial results for 2015/16 in December 2016, Dominique Marcel, Chairman & CEO of Compagnie des Alpes, said, “By seizing on the opportunity to develop leisure and skiing in the major world markets, especially in China, our ambition is to make the CDA a major French leisure champion on the world stage, building on the expertise of our two business segments and on our position as a world leader in skiing, which give us a decisive competitive advantage.”
No indications were given about when a deal between CDA and Fosun could be expected.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fosun-france-idUSKBN19W274
