(Yicai Global) June 4 -- Fosun International, headed by Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, plans to merge its two foreign cosmetics brands Ahava and Wei into its listed unit Yuyuan Tourist Mart, China’s biggest retail conglomerate.

Yuyuan Tourist Mart will pay CNY558 million (USD82.6 million) for another nearly 75 percent of Fosun Jinmei Shanghai Cosmetics, which holds all of Ahava and 68 percent of herbal skin care brand Wei, the buyer said in a statement yesterday. The company already owns 13.65 percent of Fosun Jinmei.

Shares in Yuyuan Tourist Mart [SHA:600655] were up 2.72 percent at CNY8.69 (USD1.22) as of 1.53 p.m.

Yuyuan hopes the deal will boost sales of the two brands among China’s emerging middle class, it added.

Ahava is the only cosmetics company worldwide to have factories by the Dead Sea. It sells products to 27 countries and regions and made CNY455 million in operating income last year. Wei, founded in 1999 by Chinese-American Brian Wei, runs an eponymous skin care brand and another named Wei East. Wei makes all of its products in Wuhan and earned CNY114 million in operating revenue last year, Yuyuan said.

Yuyuan began as a travel retail service but has recently become a vessel for Guo to acquire consumer-focused business assets. It announced in May that it plans to invest CNY1.84 billion (USD258 million) to buy 30 percent of Gansu province-based distiller Jinhui Liquor and become its largest shareholder.

Editor: James Boynton