Who is Wanda? Who is behind HNA? Two Chinese companies. The one - Wanda - just wanted to buy the Postbank stock market show just now, the other - HNA - has just entered the Deutsche Bank . And once again, there is a general lack of advice and ignorance. China's companies have incomprehensible names and cryptic abbreviations for us. Often, they know only industry insiders.
And even less is known about the bosses behind the names. Who already knows HNA founder Chen Feng or Wanda boss Wang Jianlin, although he is the richest Chinese.
A shortcoming that we can no longer afford to do in Germany. For the unknown men are the buyers of today and competitors of tomorrow. We must therefore look much more closely at the Chinese corporate landscape and learn to understand it. And this is divided: Here the state groups (mostly after their English name State-Owned Enterprises as SOEs abbreviated) and there the more or few private enterprises.
The SOEs are managed by an all-powerful authority, the SASAC. Currently, the SASAC has just over 100 corporations in the portfolio - from Bank of China stock exchange chart show over China Mobile to Sinopec. Many of them go for a global shopping trip, which is mostly politically motivated and arranged, for example, when buying foreign raw materials companies. The ChemChina Syngenta deal also serves a political-strategic goal, namely to secure the food supply that is becoming more precarious in China.
Alibaba: The e-commerce company was founded by Jack Ma, the most famous entrepreneur in the country. The charismatic Ma has popstar statues. He is courted by Trump and Merkel. Alibaba stock market chart - coming from the B2B area - currently buys mainly in the B2C and via subsidiary Ant Financial in the financial sector (for example, MoneyGram).
Anuwang: Wu Xiaohui started with his insurance company in 2004, but thanks to his good connections - he is married to a granddaughter of Deng Xiaoping - grew rapidly. Currently diversified into the hotel business, purchased the Waldorf Astoria in New York, but rose to the bidding of the Starwood chain.
Fosun: Founder Guo Guangchang likes to compare himself with Warren Buffett and his company with GE. Fosun is a conglomerate that is also strong in Europe. There he owns the ClubMed, banks in Portugal and Germany.
Geely: Was under Li Shufu mainly with cheap small cars big. Then he bought Volvo stock market chart , whose integration has apparently succeeded. Currently, he is showing off with Peugeot stock market show around the Malaysian manufacturer Proton.
HNA: Launched from the tropical island of Hainan with the first private airline Hainan Airlines. Founder Chen Feng followed further engagements in the airline and hotel industry (Hilton Stock Exchange Chart , Carlson, NH). Now also in banks, see the current commitment to Deutsche Bank.
Midea: A white-goods producer, who is the leader in air conditioning. Bought 2016 only the household appliances department of Toshiba stock market chart show and then the German robot manufacturer Kuka stock market chart show .
Sanpower: The company of Yuan Yafei and brother-in-law Chen Yixi is heavily in retail (computer stores and department stores) and real estate. They already bought the British department store House of Fraser in 2014.
Suning: Zhang Jindong built the largest electric market chain. Today has 1600 stores and 180,000 employees. In 2016, the majority took part in the Inter Milan football club for over 300 million dollars.
Tencent: Next to Alibaba is the other big Internet company. Earns a lot of money when playing online. Dominated with WeChat - by the way much better than WhatsApp - the trade fair market. Systematically captures the Asian market and now opens offices in Europe's cities (after Milan, Paris and London).
Wanda: Founded by Wang Jianlin, the richest Chinese (assets: $ 31 billion). He has grown big and rich in real estate. Expanded strongly in the entertainment area, bought Kinoketten, Hollywood studios, football clubs and sports rights marketer.
These are just ten companies from the top league. Behind this first row are still many stony entrepreneurs. A very good overview of "China's Tycoons" is provided by HSBC-sponsored online magazine Week in China . 150 tycoons are described and illustrated. It could well be that one of these - still - unknown gentlemen (and few ladies) this year with a suitcase full of money on the one or other German executive set up appears.