Founder Group () is a major

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

technology conglomerate that deals with

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...

, pharmaceuticals,

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

, finance, and

commodities trading A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing ...

. It is divided into five major industry groups, each covering a separate industry: PKU Founder IT Group (IT), PKU Healthcare Group (healthcare and pharmaceuticals), PKU Resource Group (real estate), Founder Financial (finance), and Founder Commodities (commodities trading). Founder Group was established by Peking University in 1986. It currently has six public companies listed in stock exchanges of

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

, and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, and more than 80 independently funded enterprises and joint ventures. Founder's motto is "世界在变创新不变" (shì jiè zài biàn, chuàng xīn bu biàn), which roughly translates to "The world is changing; innovation is not". The company is currently moving to establish itself as a

computer chip An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

designer. Founder are also owners of the largest mall in the world,

New South China Mall South China Mall () in Dongguan, China (formerly New South China Mall) is the largest shopping mall in the world when measured in terms of gross leasable area, and third in terms of total area to after Iran Mall (which has extensive non-shopping ...

, acquired from Dongguan Sanyuan Yinghui Investment & Development which had run the mall extremely poorly.

History

Founder Group was established in 1986 by Peking University. Professor

Wang Xuan Wang Xuan (; February 5, 1937 – February 13, 2006), born in Wuxi, Jiangsu, was a Chinese computer scientist. He was a computer application specialist and innovator of the Chinese printing industry, as well as an academician at both the Chinese ...

of Peking University became Founder's first key person, as the Chinese-character laser phototypesetting system that he invented provided the foundation on which Founder was developed. Wang brought Founder into the television and radio industries, positioned the company to expand overseas, and supported the diversification of the group. By 1989, total orders for the phototypesetting system exceeded 100 million yuan. Between 1990 and 1994, under the guidance of Wang Xuan, Founder released multiple technologies, including a long-distance newspaper transfer technology, a color desktop publishing system, a computer management system for gathering and editing news, and the new generation of software and hardware systems. Founder's publishing system became the most popular product of its kind, capturing 80% of the Chinese newspaper market in

, Southeast Asia, and North America. Starting in 1991, Founder started developing Chinese PostScript fonts in Windows. Throughout the late 1990s, publishing systems developed by Founder's researchers dominated the domestic market. Additionally, they entered the international market, with products being exported to dozens of countries all over the world. In the meantime, Founder Group sold its core technologies with independent intellectual rights to global manufacturers, who then applied these technologies in their products around the world. In February 2006, professor Wang Xuan died. In early 2009, the Group established a new three-year development strategy and put forward its development goal to transform itself into a diversified investment holding group. In 2016 Founder Group sold most of the shares of Founder BEA Trust to Wuhan Financial Holdings Group.

Industry groups

Founder Group is currently divided into five major industry groups: PKU Founder IT Group (IT), PKU Healthcare Group (healthcare and pharmaceuticals), PKU Resource Group (real estate), Founder Financial (finance), and Founder Commodities (commodities trading).

PKU Founder IT Group

PKU Founder IT Group (北大方正信产集团) is a leader in China's IT industry, possessing more than a dozen technological enterprises, two of which employ 15,000 employees. Its subsidiary,

Founder Technology Founder Technology Group Corporation (), a subsidiary of Founder Group from Peking University, is an information technology state-owned enterprise in Shanghai, China. It is engaged in the development of personal computers and computer periphe ...

, is the second largest personal computer distributor in China. The industry group covers a wide range of products; from software and industrial solutions to the mobile internet, PCB, semiconductors, hardware, and value-added services.

PKU Healthcare Group

In 2003, Founder Group, in collaboration with Peking University, established the PKU Healthcare Group (), and immediately began work on the Peking University International Hospital project. In the same year, the Group acquired Southwest Synthetic Pharmaceutical (now PKU Healthcare). With the help of PKU Health Science Center, PKU Healthcare has developed its own hospital network and is now a leading figure in China's healthcare and pharmaceuticals industry. As at 31 December 2015 PKU Healthcare Group owned 40.38% shares of PKU Healthcare ().

PKU Resource Group

PKU Resource Group () is a real estate holding group specializing in real estate development, education investment, commercial real estate operations, and property management. Since 2013, part of the assets were backdoor listed as

Peking University Resources (Holdings) Peking University Resources (Holdings) Co., Ltd. known also as PKU Resources is a Chinese listed company. The company was incorporated in Bermuda and listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company is an indirect non-wholly-owned subsidiary ...

. Incorporated in 1992, PKU Resource Group itself is currently 40% owned by Peking University and 30% by Founder Group. However, Peking University entrusted Founder Group to manage the company. An additional 30% was owned by a third party (). PKU Resource Group formed a 51-49 joint venture PKU Resource Group Holdings with Founder Group.

Founder Financial

Founder Financial (方正金融) is an industry group that covers securities, futures, mutual funds, investment banking, direct investment, trusts, corporate financing, insurance, commercial banking, and leasing. The group controls ten enterprises.

Founder Commodities

Founder Commodities (方正物产) is an international bulk commodities supply chain provider that combines investment, manufacturing, logistics, and information services. Currently, its business scope mainly covers areas of bulk commodity futures & spot trading, warehousing & logistic services, and investment & production. The group also does international business and scale expansion.

Founder International

Founder International Software Co., Ltd. under Peking University Founder Information Industry Group Co., Ltd., pursues a development model integrating production, teaching, research with application, adheres to the path of independent innovation, and sets the goal of becoming a leading service provider of software and information technology.

Financial performance

Founder Group earned 24.5 billion RMB (US$2.96 billion) in 2005. The total sales revenue of Founder Group reached 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2008. In 2012, Founder Group's total income, total assets and net assets were RMB 61.8 billion (US$9.9 billion), 78.2 billion (US$12.6 billion), and 32.4 billion (US$5.2 billion) respectively.

References

{{authority control Peking University Government-owned companies of China Computer hardware companies Companies based in Beijing Electronics companies of China Computer companies established in 1986 Conglomerate companies established in 1986 Chinese companies established in 1986 Zhongguancun Conglomerate companies of China Employee-owned companies of China