The Asian group flags its interest in the potential of Brazil's investments sector with the purchase, adding to acquisitions of other financial firms in recent years.

Hong Kong-headquartered insurance and investment group Fosun International has bought Brazilian asset manager Guide Investimentos for $52 million, adding to its overseas purchases of financial firms and coming days after it acquired French luxury brand Lanvin, media reports said.

“Fosun will pay 170 million Brazilian reals ($52 million) for the acquisition, and an additional 120 million reals depending on the company’s future performance,” the company is reported saying in a press release. The organization hasn’t given other details of its stake. This news service has contacted Fosun for comment and may update this item in due course.

Guide Investimentos, a Sao Paulo-based financial services company, serves more than 50,000 individual and institutional investors, reports said. It is a subsidiary of Banco Indusval, a Brazilian commercial
bank, which will retain up to a 20 per cent stake in the company.

In July 2016, Fosun acquired Brazilian fund manager Rio Bravo Investimentos, its first acquisition in Latin America.

In recent years Fosun, along with other mainland China and Hong Kong-based groups, has sought to buy private banking assets as part of a diversification strategy. It has purchased Hauck & Aufhäuser, the venerable German private banking and financial firm, for example. Meanwhile, in 2015 Fosun launched a financial platform for its investment and asset management business in Russia and neighbouring countries. Fosun was founded in 1992, and its activities span a variety of sectors, including financial services and wealth management. Not all of its bids have been successful; in 2015 it pulled out of an attempt to acquire BHF Kleinwort Benson

“The acquisition is consistent with Fosun’s strategy of investing and building operations in emerging countries, particularly in Latin America … Guide’s strategic focus on technology and innovation in distribution of financial [services] will be coupled with Fosun’s strategy of combining China’s growth momentum with global resources,” the company is reported to have said.

Brazil's recent economic woes haven't deterred wealth managers from seeing the large Latin American nation as an important market in the medium term. For example, in May last year UBS bought a majority stake in Brazil-based multi-family office CONSENSO, an organization overseeing more than BRL20 billion (around $6.1 billion). Merrill Lynch last year flagged the importance of Brazil with a senior hire, to take another example. Brazil-based Safra, part of a long-standing business dynasty, owns the Switzerland-headquartered Sarasin private banking group. In October 2015, rules restricting Brazilian investors in holding foreign assets were relaxed.

Fosun, meanwhile, has continued to acquire a variety of firms. Earlier in February, Fosun said it had acquired a controlling stake in the 129-year-old French fashion house Lanvin, without disclosing the financial details of the deal. In November last year, Fosun raised $300 million via the issue of a senior guaranteed bond with a three-year maturity.