The 52-year-old business tycoon caught the attention of the media when he first bought 89 percent of the shares of House of Fraser, a British department store, back in 2014. (Photo : Getty Images)
Yuan Yafei, founder and chairman of Sanpower Group, has no plans to slow down in this shopping spree. His target? Malls, precision medicine and healthcare, according to an article by China Daily.
The 52-year-old business tycoon caught the attention of the media when he first bought 89 percent of the shares of House of Fraser, a British department store, back in 2014.
The purchase went down as the biggest Chinese foreign retail deal in history.
Since then, Yuan snapped up other acquisitions, including Brookstone Inc, a U.S. fancy gadget retailer, and Natali Seculife Holding Ltd., a big private healthcare and homecare service provider based in Israel.
In person, Yuan is an amiable individual who regularly breaks into English during interviews as a means to exercise his language skill--one he started to learn three years ago. Learning English was a convenient move; now, he doesn't need translators to help conduct business with Western partners.
"When I talked to Western business partners, many interpreters could not exactly translate what I meant. So I decided to learn English myself," Yuan said in an interview with China Daily.
However, Yuan learned English through an unconventional way. Instead of attending school himself, he asked 10 of his assistants to teach him English every day.
"I asked questions if I didn't understand. I also asked them what the right English expression was whenever I thought of anything," Yuan said. "I'm not afraid of losing face. One can never be successful if he or she is worried about face."
Prior to becoming a business tycoon, Yuan started out as an employee at the local government of Nanjing in Jiangsu Province. He graduated from college with a degree in accounting.
His path changed for the better thanks to economic reforms led by Deng Xiaoping. In 1993, he quit his government job and entered the computer industry by the age of 30. During this time, he built do-it-yourself machines using components from Guangdong.
Within two decades, Yuan became one of the richest people in China. Last year, he was ranked as the 37th wealthiest person in the country in the Hurun Chinese rich list. His assets are estimated to be around 37 billion yuan.
When asked about why he chose to invest in overseas firms, the answer is clear.
"Very simple. To serve the Chinese market," said Yuan. "The Chinese market is huge enough. But we don't have enough experience. With the help of money, I can buy Western brands and technologies, which are exactly what Chinese companies lack."
