Insurance News
- Pacific Insurance raises US$4.1b in IPO
Date: 18-Dec-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
CHINA Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., the nation's third-largest insurer, raised 30 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion) in its Shanghai initial public offering (IPO), the second-biggest mainland share sale by an insurance company.
Pacific Insurance, 19.9 percent owned by companies controlled by funds managed by Carlyle Group, sold 1 billion new shares at 30 yuan each, the top end of a range, according to a sale document. This makes its Shanghai IPO the fourth-largest public share sale by an insurance company worldwide since at least 1999.
Investors are piling into China's IPOs, seeking an escape from a secondary stock market roiled by concerns about rising domestic interest rates and the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market.
The 22 Chinese domestic IPOs that have begun trading since Nov. 1 have risen at least 59 percent, beating an almost 15 percent decline in the nation's benchmark CSI 300 Index during the same period.
The government has urged the country's largest financial institutions to sell stock domestically to broaden the range of investments available to mainland citizens.
Shenzhen-based Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., the nation's second-largest insurer, raised US$5 billion in February in the world's biggest stock sale by an insurer. Larger rival China Life Insurance Co., based in Beijing, raised US$3.6 billion in December 2006.
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