Deals

As an investment conglomerate, Liang said Fosun chooses a limited number of large-scale deals to invest in so that they can decrease the time of decision-making and control risks.

St John is the largest women's knitwear producer in North America, and its clothing technology is unique in that its garments do not wrinkle. The garments especially appeal to executive women - women in positions of authority.

Fosun's US team has been in contact with St John since 2009 and the senior executives participated in the deal in 2012. Liang visited St John's stores and factories in Houston, Los Angeles and New York. And then Fosun Group Chairman Guo Guangchang and President Wang Qunbin also visited the company.

"We are very cautious about decision-making because we seek a success rate. We have an investment decision committee made up of seven people and most of them should be present," he said.

The Chinese market contributed to less than 1 percent of St John's annual sales, but the average proportion in China should be 29 percent by Liang's calculation.

"We are capable of helping it develop in China."

According to him, such measures include opening stores quickly and popularizing St John's brand in China. Fosun is negotiating with Intime Group and Beijing Enterprises Group Co Ltd to open to stores.

Fosun helped Folli Follie open 76 stores within two years, while the Greek company in the previous eight years only opened the same amount of stores .

Fosun also found a Chinese partner, Eve Group, for bringing in St John. They are considering the pricing strategy as well as a system for running St John in China in the coming three months.

In the United States, the price of every suit is about $1,500. That in current Chinese stores is between 15,000 and 20,000 yuan.

Chinese high-end clothing market is at the early stage of its development. Its growth rate in recent years was between 20 percent and 30 percent, much higher than that of the overall Chinese clothing market. Its annual compound growth of the high-end clothing market would be 33 percent in the coming three years, according to a report by Minsheng Securities Co.

Chanel, Dior, Burberry, Prada, Giorgio Armani and a few local brands such as Ne Tiger occupy the Chinese super high-end clothing market. Popular high-end brands in China include local brands Ports, Lancy and Marisfrolg.

During the progress of upgrading consumption, local high-end clothing companies have seized on an empty marketplace and developed fast. While foreign super high-end companies target the super rich and powerful, local high-end ones focus on the Chinese elite aged 25 to 45, who seek big brands as well as acceptable prices.

The Chinese high-end clothing market is still fragmented so companies with strong design and operational capabilities will stand out, said the report.

Fosun Group purchased a 95 percent stake in Israel-based Alma Lasers Ltd for $221.6 million in May.

Alma Lasers manufactures laser, light-based, radio frequency and ultrasound products with integrated product portfolios for aesthetic and medical applications.

Fosun Chairman Guo and President Wang visited Israel-based Alma Lasers when there was a terrorist attack in that region. They visited Alma's co-founder Dr Ziv Karni, who is a scientist with a lifelong interest in studying wavelengths.

Alma Lasers has a 15 percent share of the global market for high-end aesthetic devices with annual revenues of nearly $100 million.

Liang said beauty consumption in the European market has been cut a lot since the financial crisis, but the demand is very high in China.

"We believe the Chinese market share will take up more than 22 percent of Alma's global revenue," he said.

"We have a strong distribution capacity in China to help Alma."