UPDATE 1-Fortis and Ping An finalise partnership deal
April 2nd, 2008 | by admin |AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research)(FOR.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) and China’s Ping An Insurance Co Ltd (2318.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) have finalized a deal to set up a global asset management partnership, Fortis said on Wednesday.
Ping An will take a 50 percent stake in Fortis Investments, the global asset management arm of Fortis, for 2.15 billion euros ($3.36 billion), payable in cash on completion of the transaction, Fortis said in a statement.
“Ping An will significantly advance its strategy to establish a global asset management business … while Fortis will benefit from enhanced access to the fast-growing economies of China and Asia,” Fortis said.
In its annual report, Fortis said Ping An wanted to raise its stake in the Belgian-Dutch company to 7 percent, after recently lifting its stake to 4.99 percent from 4.18 percent.
China’s second-largest life insurer bought its initial stake in Fortis for $2.7 billion in November, as Fortis raised funds for its acquisition of parts of Dutch rival ABN AMRO for 24 billion euros.
Chinese financial firms, flush with cash, have been seeking investments opportunities abroad to fuel growth and have done several deals as their western counterparts find themselves under pressure from the credit crisis.
(Reporting by Catherine Hornby, editing by Will Waterman)
