HONG KONG: ZhongAn Online Property and Casualty Insurance priced its initial public offering (IPO) at the top of its marketing range, raising US$1.5 billion (S$2.02 billion) in Hong Kong’s biggest financial technology listing, IFR reported yesterday, citing people close to the deal. The insurer priced 199.3 million new shares at HK$59.70 each, the top of a HK$53.70 to HK$59.70 range, added IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication.
ZhongAn was founded by Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma, Tencent chairman Pony Ma and Ping An Insurance Group chairman Ma Mingzhe. The insurer did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the price. Ant Financial is ZhongAn’s biggest shareholder with a 16 per cent stake, according to a prospectus filed with the Hong Kong exchange. Ping An Insurance Group and Tencent each hold 12 per cent of ZhongAn, the filing showed. Japan’s SoftBank Group agreed to buy a total stake in ZhongAn of just under 5 per cent for about US$550 million as part of the IPO, the deal’s prospectus showed. ZhongAn raised 5.8 billion yuan (S$1.18 billion) from a group of investors, including Morgan Stanley and China International Capital, in a 2015 funding round. That share sale valued the company at 49.6 billion yuan, ZhongAn said at the time.
