HONG KONG, Jan. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Fosun International Limited ("Fosun International" or the "Company") (HKEX: 00656) was informed by The Asset, the renowned international asset management and investment magazine, that Fosun has garnered the Platinum Award at The Asset ESG Corporate Awards 2022. This year, Fosun International was accredited with the Platinum Award by The Asset for the first time after being presented with the Gold Award for four consecutive years. The Asset also awarded Fosun International Best Investor Relations Team Award.
Organized by The Asset, a renowned Asian financial magazine, The Asset Corporate Awards that has been running for many years is one of the world's leading environmental, social and governance (ESG) awards. This year, Fosun International was accredited with the Platinum Award at The Asset ESG Corporate Awards 2022, reflecting the magazine's recognition of Fosun's outstanding performance in various fields including financial performance, management, corporate governance, social and environmental responsibility, investor relations, information disclosure and corporate communication. Other recipients of the Platinum Award include Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China (Hong Kong), China Overseas Land and Investment, China Unicom, Kerry Properties, Shui On Land, Sino Land, etc.
Fosun International's ESG performance has been highly recognized by rating agencies
In recent years, global investors and stakeholders have attached increasing importance to the ESG performance of enterprises. Fosun International has been continuing to promote the development of ESG and has achieved impressive results. Its MSCI ESG rating was AA and the Hang Seng Sustainability rating was A. Fosun International has been selected as a constituent stock of Hang Seng ESG 50 Index (top 50 large-to-mid cap) for two consecutive years and it has been included as a constituent stock of the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Benchmark Index for three consecutive years, which includes 87 Hong Kong-listed companies with the most outstanding performance in corporate sustainability (top 20% of the Hang Seng Composite Index constituent stocks). All these affirm Fosun's ESG achievements and the global recognition of Fosun's ESG efforts.
Fosun's two treasures, "drug + vaccine" highlight the Group's innovative achievements and social responsibility contributions to the fight against the pandemic
The technology innovation capabilities that Fosun accumulated over the years have continued to bear fruit. On 19 December 2022, COMIRNATY®, including the monovalent COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2) and the bivalent vaccine which can protect against the Omicron variant, was officially registered as a drug/product (biological product) in Hong Kong SAR. The self-paid vaccination service of COMIRNATY® bivalent vaccine was launched in Hong Kong SAR and vaccination is open to people including Mainland Chinese residents starting from 6 January 2023. After the self-paid vaccination service of COMIRNATY® monovalent COVID-19 mRNA vaccine has opened for non-local residents in Macau SAR last year, the COMIRNATY® bivalent vaccine was approved by Macao SAR as a regular imported vaccine on 20 January 2023, and people in need may receive a booster dose with prescription. As regards Azvudine, the oral medication for COVID-19, it is now included in the medical insurance scheme in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and direct-administered municipalities across the country. In addition to tertiary hospitals and secondary hospitals, Azvudine has gradually covered grassroots medical institutions in many provinces. The accessibility of Azvudine has been greatly enhanced, helping the vast areas build a barrier against severe cases.
Improving communication in the global capital market, Fosun's long-term strategy has been recognized by investors
In recent years, the global market has been going through different stages of the economic cycle. Fosun has focused on its core businesses, deepened innovation and globalization, and maintained long-term effective communication with the capital market and investors. In 2022, Fosun overcame challenges such as the pandemic, and completed 420 domestic and overseas investor roadshows in 11 countries and regions around the world to actively communicate with global investors. Fosun has received high recognition and support from investors for its long-term strategy and corporate value. The Asset awarded Fosun International the "Best Investor Relations Team Award", which demonstrates the market's recognition of Fosun International's corporate management and operations, information disclosure, transparency, and communication with stakeholders, and affirms Fosun's long-term investment value.
Despite the headwinds of anti-globalization in 2022, Fosun is still a firm practitioner of globalization. In 2022, COMIRNATY® COVID-19 mRNA vaccine continued to provide an anti-epidemic barrier for Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and the Taiwan region; Club Med opened new resorts; Lanvin Group was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In the face of uncertainties, Fosun remained committed to technology and innovation in order to weather market cycles. HANQUYOU, independently developed by Henlius, was successfully launched in Australia after entering the European Union market; the registration application in the Chinese Mainland for the new indication of Yi Kai Da, China's first CAR-T cell therapy was officially accepted. Fosun attaches great importance to its development. No matter how policies and markets change, Fosun will always devote its best efforts.
Fosun is actively making strategic adjustments in the face of the constant changes in the macro environment and revealed the future development direction of Fosun: Fosun will reinforce its positioning as "a global innovation-driven consumer group", focus on its core businesses strategically around the consumption needs of global families, and strengthen the two core growth engines of globalization and innovation. The market is optimistic about Fosun's strategies of accelerating its strategic transformation and focusing on household consumption sectors. A number of investment banks, including Morgan Stanley, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Nomura, have published reports and assigned Fosun International an "Overweight" or "Buy" rating.
Market analyst believes that as the "one-off" negative impact of the external environment clears, Fosun's continuous focus on the family-oriented consumer sector will usher in an important period of opportunity for business rebound in 2023. Since the beginning of the year, Fosun's main businesses centering on household consumption, such as Health, Happiness, and Wealth, have shown signs of strong recovery and Fosun's forward-looking efforts in the anti-epidemic field have gradually borne fruit.
The two flagships of Fosun's Happiness segment, Fosun Tourism Group and Yuyuan, and other businesses have shown strong signs of recovery. According to market sources, when the domestic tourism industry suffered a huge setback in 2022, Fosun Tourism Group still stood firm to build global presence and opened seven new Club Med resorts throughout the year. Club Med's global bookings in the first half of 2023 have greatly exceeded the same period in 2019 before the pandemic. During the 2023 New Year holiday period, Atlantis Sanya, FOLIDAY Town Lijiang and other businesses in China all performed better than their respective pre-pandemic levels, and many Club Med resorts in China recorded close to 100% occupancy. During the 2023 New Year holiday period, the 2023 Yuyuan Garden Lantern Festival in the Grand Yuyuan attracted a large number of tourists. It is expected that the Spring Festival will further unleash consumption vitality.
Fosun's solid fundamentals and recovery potential have been widely recognized by financial institutions and investors
On 16 January 2023, Shanghai Fosun High Technology (Group) Co., Ltd. ("Fosun High Technology"), the domestic operating entity of Fosun International, received a RMB12 billion syndicated loan from eight domestic banks. This is the largest private enterprise loan led by five major state-owned banks in cooperation with policy banks and joint-stock banks since the Central Economic Work Conference explicitly proposed in December 2022 to encourage and support the development of the private economy and private enterprises. Moreover, Fosun High Technology successfully completed bookbuilding for the RMB1 billion super & short-term commercial paper on 13 January 2023.
According to a report published by S&P Global Ratings, Fosun International's total debt at the holding company level could drop by 15%-25% in 2023 as the company continues to dispose assets and pay down matured bonds, thereby further improving its liquidity. According to incomplete statistics, Fosun's return of capital from its asset reduction in 2022 has reached tens of billions of yuan. Morgan Stanley also issued a report commenting that Fosun's syndicated loan can further improve its liquidity, significantly helping lift market confidence in Fosun's stability. Looking ahead, the reopening of China will help boost fundamentals, especially in businesses such as tourism, retail, and investment.
2022 marked the 30th anniversary of Fosun's establishment. Standing at the new starting point of 30 years of establishment, Fosun will continue to strengthen its core businesses, deepen innovation and globalization. Fosun will continue to join hands with customers, partners, investors and all parties in the society to forge ahead and continue to uphold its original aspiration of "Contribution to Society", so as to actively promote the sustainable development of ESG to fulfil Fosun's mission of "Creating Happier Lives for Families Worldwide".
About The Asset Corporate Awards
Organized by The Asset, a renowned Asian financial magazine, The Asset Corporate Awards is one of the world's leading and longest-running awards. The judging committee, which composes of professional investors and analysts, assesses the overall performance including financial performance, corporate governance, social and environmental responsibility, information disclosure and corporate communication of listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region through online questionnaire submissions made by the participating companies, then follow by obtaining feedback from the investor community and analysts through interview, in order to select and award the winning companies based on the overall score. It has a strong influence in Asia and the international capital markets.