Guo Guangchang: how China’s Icarus fell to Earth

Guo Guangchang dodged the fate of many of his fellow business tycoons when the Chinese government cracked down on them. But his debt-laden empire is now facing a liquidity crunch.

Guo Guangchang
Guo’s fortune has already halved, from $8bn at his peak to around $4bn
(Image credit: © REUTERS / Alamy)

Guo Guangchang, dubbed one of “the last men standing” in China by the Financial Times, seems to have survived the government crackdown that has felled so many of his fellow tycoons.

Guo, who describes himself as a student of Warren Buffett, is a household name in the country. And in the outside world, his conglomerate, Fosun, has gained renown as one of China’s most acquisitive companies, says the FT. Guo’s roving eye has lighted on everything from a Hollywood studio to New York’s One Chase Manhattan Plaza, taking in the Lanvin fashion group, circus operator Cirque du Soleil and Club Med. In 2016, he bought Wolverhampton Wanderers where, as the Birmingham Mail notes, “he wasted little time splashing the cash”.

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.