By Yvonne Lee 

HONG KONG-- Fosun International Ltd., owner of One Chase Manhattan Plaza in downtown Manhattan, is planning to spend at least $2.4 billion to buy five insurers in the U.S., Europe and Asia this year, as the giant Shanghai conglomerate ramps up overseas acquisitions.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Fosun Chief Executive Liang Xinjun said insurers are attractive because of their pools of capital, collected as premiums, which can be invested to seek high returns.

Many Western insurers are also cheap, Mr. Liang said, trading at around one time book value, compared with the 2.4 times for their counterparts in China. The low interest-rate environment globally has hurt the profitability of some western insurers, who earn a large portion of their income by investing in bonds.

"Insurance is the most important business segment for us--the build-out of insurance gives us a cheap and sustainable source of funding," said Mr. Liang, who is one of Fosun's four founders. "The persistent low interest rate environment in the U.S. and Europe has made the acquisition targets there look more attractive."

Fosun is in exclusive negotiations to purchase five different insurance companies, and the company's due diligence efforts have been completed on those targets, Mr. Liang said. He declined to name the companies.

One immediate target in its sights, according to a person familiar with Fosun's strategy, is Israeli insurer Phoenix Holdings Ltd. Fosun is close to buying a major stake in the company for about $500 million, that person said, and negotiations are expected to be completed in June.

Owned by Delek Group Ltd., an Israeli conglomerate controlled by billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, Phoenix has about $12.5 billion worth of assets, according to its website. Phoenix couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Phoenix would be the latest deal in the multibillion-dollar overseas acquisition spree that Fosun kicked off in 2010, when it bought a small stake in French resort operator Club Méditerranée SA. This year, the conglomerate came full circle when it bought out Club Med after a year-long bidding battle.

Its largest purchase so far, according to Dealogic, has been Fidelidade Group, Portugal's largest insurance company, which it bought for $1.5 billion last year. It also bought a 20% stake in U.S. insurer Ironshore for about $463.8 million last year.

In anchoring its business to insurance, a source of cheap and stable funding, Fosun hopes it can replicate a model pioneered by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Last year, net profit from Fosun's insurance business, which includes life and property insurers in China, the Portuguese insurance asset and others, more than doubled from a year earlier to 1.1 billion yuan ($177.1 million), contributing 17% of the company's total net profit. By December, insurance assets under Fosun's management were worth about $18 billion.

The company, which was founded in 1994 by four Fudan University graduates, including billionaire chairman Guo Guangchang and Mr. Liang, initially sought to sell medical equipment. The company now operates a range of businesses. In addition to insurance, it engages in health care, retail and real estate both in China and elsewhere.

Elsewhere, Mr. Liang said Fosun is looking at investments in European real estate. The company is also focused on taking advantage of the growing numbers of mainland Chinese travelers overseas. To that end, Fosun earlier this year bought a 5% stake in British travel firm Thomas Cook Group.

Fosun has spent more than $6 billion buying overseas assets since 2010, though its debt level fell in December from a year earlier.

Back home, Fosun is planning to float the Chinese advertising company it delisted from Nasdaq Stock Market two years ago.

Focus Media Holdings Ltd., which operates liquid-crystal displays that show ads in elevators and supermarkets across China, was taken private by a group of investors, including Fosun and U.S. private-equity firm Carlyle, for about $3.7 billion.

"I believe Focus Media will accelerate its listing plan on [the] back of strong performance [in] China's equity market this year," Mr. Liang said.

Write to Yvonne Lee at yvonne.lee@wsj.com

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