The "Foreign Matchmaker" Behind The Club Of The Mediterranean Club

The photo is frozen at the "best" moment.

They are Guo Guangchang, and the other side is the Club Med (hereinafter referred to as the "Mediterranean") global CEO Henry Kiska Estaing (Henri Giscard d`Estaing, hereinafter referred to as "Goldstein").

On June 17th this small "wedding", the two parties announced formally "hand in hand".

Fosun passed its 00656.HK, a listed company in Hongkong, for nearly 210 million yuan to acquire Club Med7.1% stake, which is a high-end tourist resort operator.

This is only a small amount of equity investment with little money? Fosun international obviously does not think so. In its announcement, it said that the holding of the Mediterranean international will remain between 7.1% and 10% at least in the next 2 years, but if other shareholders do not increase it, it will be enough to make Fosun international one of the largest shareholders of Club Med.

At present, Fosun occupies one seat in the board of Club Med, but with its shareholding ratio rising to 9%, its directors will also increase to 2.

Goldstein's smile seems to have shown that he is very satisfied with Fosun.

But perhaps the best laugh is Andre Loesekrug-Pietri.

What does the Mediterranean look for?

About 3 months ago, A Capital's CEO dragon hope took his Idea (thought) to find Club Med and Fosun respectively. He didn't expect her progress to be so successful.

For Club Med and Fosun "matchmaking" for him and A Capital, it is not just a single business.

In fact, it is still a "synergetic investor". Its shares in Club Med are "included in 7.1% of the total shares", but long Bo declined to disclose the specific amount, at least less than that of Fosun international A Capital.

More importantly, this means that A Capital Nuggets have made a good start in cross-border investment in China and Europe.

After the announcement of Fosun International's stake in Club Med, "we received many European Investment enquiries from Chinese enterprises".

A Capital, founded only 3 months ago, has positioned itself as "docking with Chinese enterprises and European enterprises, especially French and German enterprises".

Its chairman Dai Bosong (Dominique de Boisseson) is still the vice president of the Ministry of foreign trade of France, while long Bon claims to know France and Germany, and has been concerned about China Investment Fund since 2002, after hosting the central European Fund (CEL) and investing in Zhongsheng photoelectric.

More than a year ago, Club Med released news: looking for partners in China.

According to a close source, "many media resources of Fosun international are one of the important factors to attract Club Med", which is believed to help Club Med open its fame in China.

Since the first purchase of Focus Media's 13.3% stake in 2008, the intention of Fosun international to build a new version of the media has surfaced and is particularly involved in Sina.

Since then, Fosun has invested and participated in the operation of media projects through an exciting group. Its appearance is flashing in the mainstream media such as "Global Entrepreneur" and "Forbes".

"Abacus" of Fosun

In June 12th, Club Med accepted the investment plan of Fosun Group.

After the announcement of the two sides in June 13th, the share price of Club Med listed in Paris continued to rise, rising to 25% in 3 days.

"With this rise in power, Fosun international will probably be the first Chinese company known by many European companies."

A PE personage especially appreciates the behavior of Fosun international, which may facilitate its subsequent European investment.

Although the first largest private enterprise, Fosun is familiar in China, "who knows who is Fosun in Europe?" but Club Med disagrees. The company, which started in 1950, has a high reputation in Europe and America, and its sales revenue in 2009 is 1 billion 360 million euros.

Therefore, Guo Guangchang believes that the investment in Club Med is "strategic".

Shortly after long Bo Wang's proposal to buy Club Med was pmitted to Fosun international, it established a team headed by Tian surname leader, and maintained daily communication and investment with "Club Med".

Moreover, Club Med is associated with "consumption upgrading opportunities". Guo Guangchang said Fosun had been paying attention since the beginning of the year, and "high-end tourism brand is its investment target".

Club Med's "one-stop" service mode is "unique in China", though the high-end Resort and hotel brands including banyan tree and Shangri-La have already started to rush to the Chinese market.

In 1950, Club Med founder and water polo player (Gerard Blitz) created the "one price, all inclusive" service mode. Accommodation, catering, sports, activities, equipment and even coach guidance, conference facilities, private meeting space and other services are included in the price of the set meal. "Gerard Blitz"

According to the statistics, half of the households in Club Med account for half of their families, and the other half are couples and honeymoon couples.

This is because children from 4 months to 17 years old can find their own paradise here. They have special personnel to organize and take care of them. "Parents have private space and can have dinner with their children".

"The biggest feature of Club Med is GO (Gentil organisateur)," its CEO Goldstein said. This group of young people from all over the world is like a goodwill ambassador of Club Med rather than simply a waiter.

Summer from Jilin is the first Chinese G.O of Club Med. Her attraction is not about $500 in monthly salary, but in the picturesque working environment, she can "get to know friends from all over the world".

But can Club Med grow smoothly as Liang Xinjun predicted? The former CEO of Fosun Group said at a previous press conference that Club Med is expected to benefit from the growth of China's domestic demand market in the next 3 years.

Club Med worldwide received 23 thousand Chinese guests in 2009, and they hoped that by 2015, the data could rise to 200 thousand.

Liang Xinjun is very confident that there will be 1 million 400 thousand households in China with an annual income of about $35 thousand, and the corresponding amount in 2015 is expected to be 4 million 100 thousand.

For the target customers of these Club Med, its current price of 1400 yuan per person per day is very competitive in China.

Chinese enterprises "go to sea"

Do not lock in "bankrupt enterprises" only.

Long Bo Wang clearly smiles best. He is determined to duplicate the "Fosun and Club Med cooperation mode", which only confirms the small equity and investment path of "increasing leadership" for the invested enterprises.

At the end of last year, long Bo looked at "looking for cross border investment opportunities".

The European who began to pay attention to China in 2002 began to notice that Chinese enterprises wanted to get involved in the upstream industries such as brands and services through mergers and acquisitions, but they could not find the path.

After the financial crisis, the "underestimation of European assets" also created opportunities for them, and many European companies had to start thinking about the Chinese market.

This is the origin of A Capital.

But it is not that long Bo sees "cross border" opportunities. The financial crisis has created opportunities for Chinese enterprises to buy European luxury brands.

In July last year, IDG supported its women's clothing brand, Lacroix Christian.

Until then, the brand of high fashion custom with Dior and Channel has gone bankrupt.

In addition, there are Wenzhou businessmen in Italy's yacht brand income pocket.

Is "bidding" a shortcut? "I don't think so."

Long Bo Wang said that although it can be very cheap to buy "bankrupt enterprise assets", but in the process of restructuring, it is bound to "pay a higher price".

Because a local company can hardly restructure bankrupt enterprises, and Chinese enterprises are separated from other countries.

"Chinese enterprises should do better than icing on the cake," said long Bo Wang, which is more likely to lead to a win-win situation: European partners hope that Chinese enterprises can provide help when they enter the Chinese market, while the "deeper understanding of technology and management" is the reward that the Chinese side can give.

The Club Med will maintain its original strategy and original team, and the daily decision will also be made by Club Med's headquarters now.

This strategy is more beneficial to prudent Europeans.

Long Bo Wang believes that "small equity investment" is good at lubricating "mergers and acquisitions", not to appear in the examination and approval, layoffs and so on.

Until enough trust is established with local government and enterprise management, "big M & A will be much more successful".