Chinese Billionaire : Yuan Yafei
Yuan Yafei chairs the Sanpower Team, whose passions retail, finance, real estate as well as .The team is an investor in Shanghai-listed retailer Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store Co., which bought virtually 90% of UK chain Residence of Fraser in 2014.
He’s been described as a wily chain-smoking deal-maker who made his start in business selling computers by a toilet.
But China’s Yuan Yafei, a former government official, has come a long way since then.
Today he is the Chinese billionaire who holds the fate of 17,500 House of Fraser workers in his hands.
Mr Yuan’s Sanpower Group, a firm he founded in 1993, snapped up 89% of a struggling House of Fraser in 2014.
The self-made Chinese tycoon had grand plans to save the struggling 169-year-old retail chain and turn it into a global entity.
Instead, the 54-year-old is now watching his famous department chain go into administration, while 31 stores have already been earmarked for closure.
His net worth is $ 2.2 B as of 5/2/17.
Source:
- Forbes
- bbc