At least four consortiums made up of private Chinese investors have approached US insurance giant American International Group (AIG) to acquire its Asian unit, AIA, a Hong Kong newspaper reported yesterday.
The investors approached AIG and the US Treasury Department shortly after Britain’s Prudential aborted a plan to take over AIA last month when its shareholders balked at the US$35.5 billion cost, the South China Morning Post reported.
It said all the mainland investors involved indicated they had strong backing from Chinese insurers or banks. It said one of the consortiums is led by Shan Weijian (單偉建), chairman of the large Asian investment firm Pacific Alliance Group (太平洋投資集團).
PHOTO: EPA
Another consortium is led by Zhang Songqiao (張松橋), chairman of Hong Kong-based property group CC Land Holdings (中渝置地控股). Zhang is also a major shareholder in Hong Kong-based China Strategic Holdings (中策集團), the report said.
The third consortium is led by Guo Guangchang (郭廣昌), chairman of Shanghai-based Fosun Group (復星集團), a large non-state-owned investment conglomerate, according to the newspaper.
The fourth is a group of Hong Kong and Taiwanese investors.
Analysts were baffled at why so many private Chinese investors were eyeing the AIA bid, the newspaper said.
Some speculated that the central government would be forced to make a decision soon on whether it wanted to back one of the four consortiums or use a new investment vehicle.
“The AIA business has standing in Asia. As Chinese insurers are expanding and banks have the ambition to develop insurance business, AIA is a suitable target,” Wang Xujin, a professor at Beijing Technology and Business School, told the newspaper.
In May, Prudential took out secondary listings in Hong Kong and Singapore to woo Asian investors ahead of a planned issue of shares designed to raise US$21 billion to help fund the now-aborted AIA takeover.
The huge transaction would have been the biggest-ever takeover in the insurance sector.
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