Relentless buyer of Western brands has his sight firmly set

The long history and experience of House of Fraser, Brookstone and Natali could help him expand his retail and healthcare empire in China.

Sanpower owns Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store Co Ltd, one of the oldest and one of the 10 largest department stores in China. But like other traditional retailers, it faces challenges from the rapid rise of e-commerce and a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

"House of Fraser has 167 years of history. It is not easy to build and sustain a brand for such a long time," Yuan said.

The British retailer has the type of management system that the Chinese counterparts lack, especially its buyer system, house brands and supply chains, Yuan said. "That is exactly what we are looking for."

He plans to open the first flagship House of Fraser store in the Oriental Plaza of Xinjiekou, a central business area of Nanjing, in October .

The Nanjing branch of House of Fraser will feature "British style" to showcase its difference and competitiveness, Yuan said. The "British-style" will also spread to the nearby International Finance Center, which Yuan bought from Li Ka-shing in 2014, where a Hamleys toy store will be unveiled in October.

Last year, the 256-year-old British toy retailer was bought by Nanjing-based Chinese footwear company C.banner International Holdings Ltd, in which Sanpower is a strategic partner. Hamleys' flagship store on London's Regent Street is one of London's major tourist attractions.

"A good shopping mall should be considered as 'a travel destination within the city', where you can have sightseeing, fine dining and lots of fun," Yuan said. "It must meet the spiritual needs of consumers and offer customers a richer experience that could not be offered online."

Yuan said he focused on preparing "content" of his malls in the last five years, rather than opening new ones in China, because he believes China is oversaturated with malls that could not differentiate themselves.

Healthcare is another focus for Yuan.

Sanpower bought an elderly care company Shanghai An Kang Tong Health Management Co Ltd in 2013. A year later, it bought Natali, Israel's largest private healthcare company.

His next goal is precision medicine, an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes. Nanjing Xinjiekou bought China Cord Blood Corp, the largest umbilical cord blood bank operator in China in terms of geographical coverage, for 7.5 billion yuan at the beginning of this year.

Yuan's overseas buying spree has not stopped. Recently he has been traveling abroad to meet the world's leading researchers in life sciences. "I am looking for the most advanced technologies," Yuan said.

Cang Wei in Nanjing contributed to this story.