ZHONGAN TO OFFER LIFE INSURANCE
Internet-only insurer’s final pricing to be decided on Thursday
CHINA’S ZhongAn Online Property and Casualty Insurance Co Ltd, the nation’s first internet-only insurer, said it plans to add life insurance and other healthcare products to its range of policies after going public, here.
ZhongAn, founded by Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma, Tencent chairman Pony Ma and Ping An Insurance Group chairman Ma Mingzhe, also planned to offer its technology to insurers inside and outside of China, it said on Sunday.
The company is offering 199.3 million new shares in an indicative range of HK$53.70 to HK$59.70 (RM28.77 to RM32) each, putting its initial public offering (IPO) at up to HK$11.9 billion. At the top end of the range, ZhongAn would have a market value of around US$11 billion (RM46.09 billion), it said in its prospectus.
Final pricing would be decided on Thursday, with its debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange slated for September 28, said the company.
Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp agreed to buy a stake of just below five per cent in ZhongAn as a cornerstone investor in the IPO, investing about US$550 million.
“This is a good marriage for the company in the sense that this is a strategic, visionary investor and they’ve done a lot of study into the company. SoftBank is definitely a very strong stamp of approval,” said ZhongAn chief financial officer Francis Tang. Reuters