Posted on 01/21/2008 8:17:51 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Ping An in $22bn push for overseas targets
By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
Published: January 20 2008 19:19 | Last updated: January 21 2008 02:57
Ping An Insurance, China’s second-largest insurer, plans to raise almost $22bn to help fund aggressive foreign acquisition plans in China’s biggest-ever share sale.
The size of the share issue – three times the amount the company raised in its initial public offering a year ago – indicates that Chinese companies want the financial resources to acquire or buy into weakened western rivals, according to analysts and bankers. Many US and European financial services companies have seen their share prices tumble after billions of dollars in subprime-related losses.
Ping An plans to issue 1.2bn new shares to public and institutional investors in a secondary placement in Shanghai, raising more than $16bn based on Friday’s closing price of Rmb98.21.
The insurer, 16.8 per cent-owned by UK bank HSBC, also plans to sell up to $5.7bn worth of Shanghai-traded six-year convertible bonds with detachable warrants, further diluting existing shareholders’ stakes. HSBC, which has already seen its stake diluted from 19.9 per cent at the IPO, said it could not participate in the A-share issue as it is restricted to domestic investors.
Ping An said proceeds from the fundraising will be used for acquisitions that are “significantly beneficial to the group’s expansion strategies and operation efficiencies” and “compatible” with its insurance, banking and asset management activities.
“The financial sector in the US and Europe has been depressed for a while now and this presents a buying opportunity for Chinese firms like Ping An,” said Steven Sun, Asia-Pacific equity strategist at HSBC. “Domestically I can’t see what sort of target they could buy besides a couple of medium-sized banks.”
Ping An’s proposed share and bond sale must still be approved by regulators and a two-thirds majority of shareholders at a meeting scheduled for March 5.
On the other hand, Ping An is just wasting its money.
It becomes more understandable now why Bush has let the dollar free-fall. His dad is pulling strings behind the curtain IMO.
China is going to get some fantastic opportunities now.
Without getting the tinfoil hat out I agree. This is the way elites in both the east and the west want things to play out as both groups will benefit at the expense of their respective populace.
I agree. Just one more reason to swear off the stampede of the RINOs. I am about as disgusted as it gets.
Oh... just wait till New Deal ver 2.0 After the first one the entire political landscape shifted. You were conservative or liberal within the paradigm of Social Security etc. After this we’ll all be RINOs or kooks. Think of how serious people take Ron Paul when he says things like gold standard etc etc. That’s us sooner or later.
HSBC is "The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation" based in Hong Kong with home office in London.
No matter, it is the ChiComs' big worldwide bank. UK HSBC buys into the IPO and sees that investment diluted out. Now a secondary issue futher dilutes and the new shares are only sold to ChiComs as Shanghai A shares. Any Shanghai A shares are nothing more than commie pachinko game.
The communist party plays a mean ponzi scheme.
yitbos
I don’t see how that makes much sense.
China holds mostly dollars. They are buying things with dollars. Since things here are priced in dollars the value of the dollar against other currencies makes little difference.
I will say that with the falling value of the dollar it is wise to purchase all they can in the US because those assets are likely to hold value better than the dollars they’re holding.
Perhaps so. And if so, can you imagine what direction this nation will be headed in. Seriously! God help the nation that considers loyal citizens to be crackpots, and those who contribute to it’s destruction the reasoned.
bargain or burden?
Will Asians in big cities all go back to riding bicycles again? That would temporarily lower oil prices and put our US import corporations in a position to continue ruling them. ;-)
You know what, I agree. You’ve made a good point. Now, is it good for us to allow our assets to be sold off? I haven’t been too happy about it in the past. I have very mixed thoughts on this. If we had some conservative leadership, it would ease my concerns considerably. I just don’t think that we do. Think of the problems we’ve had with Chinese cash corrupting our government, then think of tens of thousands of businesses inside the U.S. owned by the Chinese.
PING to read later
Ping An should skip all that nonsense and just buy Walmart. /sarcasm
Is there a Ping list for this thread. /humor
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