Three of the 51 stakeholders in Hong Kong-based China Strategic Holdings Ltd (中策集團) double as members of committees related to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body to the Chinese Communist Party, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
“Although these three stakeholders are of Hong Kong nationality, not citizens of the People’s Republic of China, we will continue to look into the eligibility of their subscription for convertible bonds [to be issued by China Strategic],” Wu Chung-chuan (吳崇權), deputy director of the commission’s insurance bureau, told a media briefing yesterday.
If they are found to have merely served as Hong Kong representatives to CPPCC-related committees, their eligibility as bidders for Nan Shan Insurance Co (南山人壽) would not cause concern, he said.
In October, China Strategic teamed up with Primus Financial Holdings Ltd to acquire a 97.57 percent stake in Nan Shan from its US parent, American International Group Inc, for US$2.15 billion.
Wu said if some of the Nan Shan bidders are shown to have direct involvement in the CPPCC, the commission may deny regulatory approval until the stakeholders in question have been replaced. He reiterated that neither Chinese citizens nor CPPCC members are legally allowed to take up stakes in domestic financial institutions.
Earlier yesterday during a legislative session, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) accused China Strategic vice president and chief executive Raymond Or (柯清輝) and four other stakeholders of being incumbent CPPCC members, who should be forbidden from acquiring the local life insurer, according to local media reports.
Wu said yesterday that his bureau was not aware that Or was an incumbent CPPCC member and had found that none of the 51 stakeholders were directly involved in the Chinese political advisory body.
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