Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Limited announced yesterday the acquisition of the majority of Tenax Capital, an asset management boutique specialized in investments in financial equity, private debt of SMEs, and insurance link securities, based in London and hitherto wholly controlled by the founder Massimo Figna (see the press release here).
According to BeBeez, Fosun will acquire a stake of around 75% of the asset manager’s capital. The Chinese group will conduct the acquisition through the subsidiary Fosun Insurance, which at the same time subscribed for 30 million euros the new private debt fund of Tenax, currently in being in fundraising. The operation is expected to close by the second half of the year, once all the necessary authorizations have been obtained from the supervisory authorities.
Founded in 2004, Tenax Capital currently manages around one billion euros of assets and in Italy is particularly active in the private debt sector, also in support of private equity transactions. For example, Tenax Capital recently signed a 20 million euro bond issued by Abramo Customer Care spa, a company specializing in customer support and back office management services (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Tenax, it was said, is currently in fundraising for its Tenax Pmi Capital Fund, which at the end of November 2018 had announced the first closing at 100 million euros and aims to reach a 200 million euros target (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The previous private debt fund was the Tenax Italian Credit Fund, raised in 2015.
Founded in 1992 by chairman Guo Guangchang, who still controls it, Fosun has been listed in Hong Kong since 2007 and by the end of 2018 had assets of approximately 93.1 billion dollars. Fosun has activities in the insurance, financial and wealth management sectors, but also in the pharmaceutical and medical services and in leisure time (remember the takeover of Club Med and the battle with Investindustrial a few years ago, see here a previous post by BeBeez).
