Ageas to Sell Hong Kong Life Insurance Business
August 30 2015 - 9:10PM
Dow Jones News
BRUSSELS—Belgian insurance company Ageas said Sunday it will
sell its Hong Kong Life insurance business to Chinese
asset-management firm JD Capital for €1.23 billion ($1.4
billion).
Ageas said it expects to complete the sale in the first half of
2016 subject to regulatory approvals.
The company said in a news release it remains firmly committed
to its Asian businesses but will focus on its joint ventures and
partnership in India, Malaysia, China, Philippines, Thailand and
Vietnam.
"The decision to sell our business in Hong Kong follows a
strategic review of our Asian activities in which we concluded that
it is in the group's best interest to realign our strategy towards
the fast growing emerging markets of Asia," said Ageas Chief
Executive Bart de Smet.
Ageas, the former insurance unit of failed financial firm
Fortis, bought Hong Kong's Pacific Century Insurance and rebranded
the company to Ageas in 2007
The company said the sale of the Hong Kong unit would have an
estimated positive €450 million impact on its net results.
The Hong Kong unit has more than 2,500 professional financial
advisers and saw gross inflows of €481 million last year.
Beijing-based JD Capital, established in 2007, is listed on the
Chinese National Equities Exchange and Quotations. It has offices
across China, Asia and North America operating a variety of
financial-service firms including one of China's largest
private-equity investment firms.
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 30, 2015 20:55 ET (00:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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