Prudential Financial, the US insurance group, has agreed to invest $500m in a new Chinese private equity fund run by Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group that will focus on buying faded western brands and bringing them to the Chinese market.
Fosun will contribute $100m of its own money to the fund, which will be on the lookout for investments similar to the one Fosun made in Club Méditerranée last year, when it bought nearly 10 per cent of the holiday resort company with a plan to revive its image and upgrade its China strategy.
As manager of the fund, Fosun is particularly interested in famous luxury clothing, shoe and fashion brands that have fallen on hard times but could be resuscitated by tapping into the booming Chinese consumer market through Fosun’s extensive network of subsidiary companies.