19 March 2010

Deals surge

01/06/2005

Corporate activity continues to be brisk in the insurance sector. Banking giant HSBC is to pay £580 million to double its holding in Ping An, China’s second largest life assurer, to 20 per cent.

HSBC is buying its second ten per cent in Ping An, which has 20 million policyholders in a market expected to double to £26 billion in three years, from US investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and paying nearly twice what it paid for its initial ten per cent.

Meanwhile, London-listed South African financial services combine Old Mutual is negotiating the possible acquisition of Skandia, the biggest insurer in the Nordic region, where Wall Street player Carl Icahn has recently built a stake. Closer to home, broker Numis is planning to bring Advent Capital Holdings, the Lloyd’s reinsurance specialist headed by veteran star underwriter Brian Caudle, to AIM with a fundraising, potentially in equity and debt, to the tune of a possible £50 million.

Sector: Nonlife Insurance

Companies: , Old Mutual , Advent Capital

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