On the afternoon of 8 September, the Economic & Trade Matchmaking Conference on Building Nanjing into a "Belt & Road" Hub City was held at the headquarters of Sanpower Group (Sanpower). Organized by the Nanjing Foreign Affairs Office and the Nanjing Federation of Industry and Commerce, supported by Sanpower, the conference aims to build a foreign economic and trade exchange and cooperation platform for Nanjing's enterprises to go global.

The conference was a city-level special event during the 2016 "China (Nanjing) Golden Autumn Economic and Trade Fair". The Consuls-General and business officials of relevant countries along the "the Belt and Road Initiative" in Shanghai, chief representatives of representative offices of foreign business institutions, chambers of commerce and industrial & commercial organizations in China, as well as heads of renowned export-oriented private enterprises in Nanjing were invited to enhance mutual understanding, explore business opportunities and seek cooperation through exchanges and matchmaking. Xu Jinhui, member of the Standing Committee and Minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee, attended the conference and delivered a speech. Yue Lei, Senior Vice President of Sanpower, introduced the company's globalization achievements in recent years.

Nanjing's leaders, representatives of overseas institutions in China and representatives of Nanjing's enterprises attend the conference

Sanpower goes out for acquisition at the call of the “Belt and Road” policy

Building a “Belt and Road” hub city is becoming an economic focus of Nanjing. Guided by the “Belt and Road Initiative” strategy, a growing number of enterprises in Nanjing have embarked upon a new journey. As a renowned private enterprise in Nanjing, Sanpower is also seeking multi-dimension, multi-level and multi-aspect cooperation and exchanges with the countries along the Belt and Road at the call of the policy.

According to Yue, Sanpower mapped out the strategy of international development in 2013. 2014 marked the first year for the internationalization of Sanpower. Since 2014, Sanpower and its subsidiaries have acquired enterprises such as the UK’s oldest department store House of Fraser, the USA’s largest novelty chain Brookstone, Israel’s world leading senior care service company Natali, and care-at-home service company A.S.Nursing. Through resource integration, Sanpower has achieved brilliant results.

Speaking of the cause of the international strategy, Yue said that many industries in European and American countries started earlier and developed better than China did. If we want to overtake them, we must introduce foreign advanced technologies, brand resources and software and hardware products to China, to promote the transformation, upgrading and synergic development of domestic industries. This is exactly linking the domestic market to the international market and integrating international resources with domestic resources mentioned by the government.

The overseas assets acquired develop well

Sanpower is a private business group starting with traditional retail. In the new economic situation, under the impact of e-commerce, how traditional commerce develops is also a challenge pressing for solution. Through a series of overseas M&A activities, Sanpower has brought these advanced technologies and models to China, and integrated them into domestic industrial platforms to promote their transformation. “This is exactly ‘going out’ and ‘bringing in’ we have been talking about,” said Yue.

He gave an example. In 2014, Nanjing Cenbest, a subsidiary of Sanpower, acquired House of Fraser, a British quintessential department store group. The acquired enterprise developed well, and will open its first domestic store in Nanjing this year and the second in Xuzhou. He also revealed that British Prince William met with Yuan Yafei, Chairman of Sanpower during his first visit to China last year. Following the fruitful meeting, they jointly proposed to initiate a wildlife protection foundation.

Another example is the acquisition of Brookstone, the US-based enterprise focusing on novelty entertainment, home and office products. Following the M&A activities, it not only opened Hisap Brookstone stores in Nanjing Aqua City, Jiangning Wanda Plaza and Nanjing Cenbest, but also moved into Shanghai, Suzhou and other cities in support of the transformation and development of Hisap. On 8 September, Brookstone’s first airport store in China opened at T3 of the Beijing Capital International Airport. After the acquisition of Natali, Israel’s most advanced home senior care & nursing enterprise, their world advanced telemedicine technology and emergency call management system were integrated into Sanpower’s senior care platform—An Kang Tong. Thus, Sanpower’s senior care ecosystem brought together overseas resources, accomplished the synergetic development of home senior care, community senior care and institutional senior care with the support of the Internet, big data and cloud computing, and filled a gap in domestic senior care services.

Yue Lei, Senior Vice President of Sanpower Group, introduces Sanpower's overseas M&A activities

Sanpower looks to be ranked among Fortune Global 500 in 2018

At the conference on the afternoon of 28 September, the Consuls-General and business officials of countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka introduced respective investment promotion policies in the hope of attracting Nanjing’s enterprise for investment. Yue revealed that Sanpower is adjusting its internationalization strategies in the context of the “Belt and Road Initiative”. Sanpower has planned two lines: one is acquiring enterprises in developed European and American countries, and the other is operating and cementing industrial capacity cooperation in some developing countries with the “Belt and Road Initiative” as the centre. Sanpower previously set the goal of being ranked among Fortune Global 500 in 2018. Under the internationalization strategy, Sanpower also proposed to increase the proportion of the revenues of its overseas subsidiaries to over 35 percent, up to the standards of multinational enterprises.

The Central Seminar on Advancing the Construction of the “Belt and Road Initiative” was held in Beijing on 17 August, 2016. Yuan Yafei, Chairman of Sanpower, attended the seminar as a business head. Following the seminar, he said that Sanpower will continue to quicken the pace of “going global”, expand its business layout in the countries along the “Belt and Road”, integrate global resources, cement industrial capacity cooperation, and benefit the people along the “Belt and Road” through advanced technologies and quality products.