Cross-Border Acquisition: Chinese-funded Enterprises Frequently Acquire Foreign Health Food Brand

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Before the end of 2018, health food imported through CBEC needn’t get registration or filing approval. Therefore, in recent years, many foreign health food brands have entered the Chinese market through CBEC platforms. Quite a lot of them have accumulated great reputation and popularity in China, such as Swisse, GNC and so on.

For Chinese-funded enterprises, the acquisition of these well-known overseas health food enterprises with high consumer awareness and popularity is undoubtedly a short-cut for realizing enterprise expansion, opening its own brand awareness, and quickly seizing the domestic health food market. Therefore, driven by multiple benefits, Chinese-funded enterprises have frequently purchased “foreign health food brands” in recent years. In 2016, Swisse was incorporated into Health & Happiness Group. And in February 2018, Harbin Pharmaceutical Group bought 40% shares of GNC, spending 300 million USD.

Table 1 Cases of Chinese-funded Enterprises Acquiring Overseas Health Food Enterprises (Incomplete Statistics)

Chinese enterprise/brand	Time	Foreign enterprise /brand	Holding shares	Amount
Health & Happiness Group	2015.9	Australia: SWISSE	83%	1.386 billion AUD	1.697 billion AUD
Health & Happiness Group	2016.12	Australia: SWISSE	17%	0.311 billion AUD	1.697 billion AUD
Kingdomway	2015.1	America: Doctor’s Best Holdings	51%	35 million USD
	2015.6	America: Vitatech	Undisclosed	0.595 billion RMB
	2017.2	America: Labrada	30%	8.1 million USD
	2017.6	Singapore: VITAKIDS PTE.LTD.	95%	17.48 million RMB
	2017.6	Singapore: PINK OF HEALTH PTE.LTD.	95%	17.48 million RMB
	2018.5	America: ZIPFIZZ CORPORATION	100%	80 million USD
Aland	2010	America: Inverness Medical Company Nutrition Department (IVC)	100%	63.4 million USD
	2014.6	America: Adam Nutrition	Undisclosed	Undisclosed
	2016.3	Netherlands: Bloem Health Products B.V.	Undisclosed	Undisclosed
	2016.6	America: Nutrition business of Perrigo	100%	Undisclosed
	2016.12	Britain: Brunel Healthcare Manufacturing Limited	100%	Undisclosed
	2016.12	Britain: Biocare Limited	100%	Undisclosed
Sinolife United	2014.11	New Zealand: Good Health	60%	23.27 million NZD
Fosun	2014.11	New Zealand: Good Health	40%	23.27 million NZD
By-Health	2016.3	Establish a joint venture with NBTY(America) in Hong Kong, obtain the permanent rights to operate Nature's Bounty and Met-RX and use the trademarks of them in the Chinese market	60%	80~120 million RMB
Shanghai Pharma	2016.8	Australia: Vitaco	60%	1.58 billion RMB
Primavera Capital Group	2016.8	Australia: Vitaco	40%	1.58 billion RMB
Ausnutria	2016.8	Australia: Nutrition Care	100%	0.16 billion RMB
New Hope Group	2016.8	Australia: Australian NaturalCare (ANC)	100%	Undisclosed
Xiwang Food	2016.9	Canada: Kerr Investment Holdings	80%	0.73 billion USD
Primavera Capital Group	2016.9	Canada: Kerr Investment Holdings	20%	0.73 billion USD
Sirio Pharma	2016.12	Germany: Ayanda	100%	Undisclosed
CDH Fund	2017.3	New Zealand: Better Health	80%	Undisclosed
HGGC LL	2017.5	America: Nutraceutical International Corp	Undisclosed	0.446 billion USD
Firmus	2017.12	America: Vitamin World	Undisclosed	28 million USD
Harbin Pharmaceutical Group	2018.2	America: GNC	40%	0.3 billion USD

Most brands already have strategic plans in the Chinese market, some have applied registration and filing with former CFDA, some have got the filing certificates. The details are presented in Section 2: How Many Health Food are Registered in China of which is issued by CIRS. If you would like to get the to get more complete information pertaining to Chinese health food, please click here to order it.

If you have any needs or questions, please contact us at service@cirs-group.com.

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