A visitor walks past a Ping An Bank display panel at a financial exhibition in Qingdao, Shandong province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Ping An Insurance Group Co and Sunshine Insurance Group Corp are among the suitors vying for Tahoe Investment Group Co’s life insurance unit, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The firms have been picked to advance in the bidding for Tahoe Life Insurance Co in a deal that could raise more than US$1 billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Negotiations are ongoing and the companies could decide against a deal, the people said.
Shares in Tahoe Group Co, Tahoe Investment’s luxury real estate development unit, jumped as much as 8 percent on Thursday after the Bloomberg News report. The shares have declined more than 36 percent this year.
Shares in Tahoe Group Co, Tahoe Investment’s luxury real estate development unit, jumped as much as 8 percent on Thursday after the Bloomberg News report. The shares have declined more than 36 percent this year
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After Tahoe Group defaulted in July on a 1.5 billion yuan (US$227 million) bond, Tahoe Investment agreed to sell a 19.9 percent stake in the developer to larger rival China Vanke Co. Tahoe Investment is also weighing the sale of a US health unit, Alliance Healthcare Services Inc., Bloomberg News reported in August.
Tahoe Life was previously known as Dah Sing Life, a Hong Kong insurer. Tahoe Investment bought the unit from Dah Sing Financial Holdings Ltd for HK$10.6 billion (US$1.4 billion) in 2017.
Shenzhen-based Ping An is China’s largest insurer by market value. It has more than 204 million retail clients across financial services areas such as insurance and banking, according to its website. Ping An is the largest single shareholder in HSBC Holdings Plc, holding about an 8 percent stake.
READ MORE: China's Ping An Insurance increases stake in HSBC to 8%
Founded in 2005, Beijing’s Sunshine Insurance Group comprises businesses including insurance, health care and asset management, its website shows.
A representative for Ping An declined to comment. Representatives for Tahoe Group and Sunshine Life did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
