Club Med Owner Fosun Tourism Says 1st-Half Loss Narrowed; Americas And France Recovered, China Slumped

Fosun Tourism Group, the tourism arm of Shanghai billionaire Guo Guangchang’s investment firm Fosun International, said its loss narrowed in the first six months of 2022 to 197 million yuan, or $29 million, from 2 billion yuan a year earlier as travel picked up and the impact of Covid-19 waned in key global markets except China.

Revenue at the company, whose global brand ownership or partnerships include Club Med, Atlantis and Thomas Cook, more than doubled to 6.4 billion yuan from 2.8 billion yuan a year earlier, Fosun Tourism said on Thursday after the close of trade at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. (Click here for the full announcement.)

The total number of hotel guest bookings at group properties more than doubled to 597,000 from 264,000 in the first six months of 2021, notably helped by increased stays in the Americas and France. By contract, business in the company’s troubled home market in China plunged to only 48,000 guests from 115,000 a year earlier. (See details here.) China’s “zero-Covid” policies and selective travel restrictions have hurt travel and hotel businesses in the world’s No. 2 economy; GDP growth was only 0.4% in the second quarter from a year earlier.

Fosun Tourism raised approximately HK$3.2 billion in an IPO at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in late 2018. Shares on Monday closed at HK$11.20; that’s compares with its IPO price of HK$15.60 but is 14% higher than a year ago.

Fosun International owns about 81% of Fosun Tourism. Guo, 54, is worth $5.9 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today. Forbes International’s shares closed at HK$5.94 on Monday, and have lost nearly 37% of their value in the past year. Fosun International’s investments range from pharmaceuticals to mining, as well as real estate, tourism and steelmaking.

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@rflannerychina