PARIS, May 28 (UPI) -- International resort business Club Med said it received a buyout offer from French and Chinese investors.
The $700 million offer came from a group that included French insurer AXA and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The international team-up reflects Club Med's European customer base and its latest transition.
Half of Club Med's visitors each year -- about 60,000 people -- are from France. But the company's strongest growth region is in China, which Fosun International says is an area of strong growth among high-end vacationers, the Times said.
Club Med hasn't regained the $1.8 billion revenue level that it earned in 2008. But it launched its first Chinese resort at a ski center in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang in 2010 and is planning a second resort in China, where, the Times said, there will be karaoke on the entertainment schedule and mah-jongg instead of Scrabble boards, which are staples at other Club Med resorts.
"We have to accelerate our growth in emerging markets, the largest of which is China," Henri Giscard d'Estaing, chief executive of Club Med, told the Times.
"That takes time and you need shareholder and management stability. The goal of this agreement is to provide that stability," he said.
The inclusion of French investors is both strategic and diplomatic, said Jean-Jacques Manceau, author of "Reinventing the Dream Machine," a book about Club Med.
"The presence of AXA can have no other purpose than to reassure politicians ... that this will remain a French company," Manceau said.
