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June 26, 2018 at 07:47 PM
Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li is laying the groundwork for a potential initial public offering of his insurance company FWD Group after five years of building the business through acquisitions, people familiar with the matter said.
The company, which is backed by Swiss Re AG, is weighing a listing that could take place as soon as the next couple years, according to the people. FWD has held preliminary discussions with investment banks about a possible IPO as part of regular meetings about the insurer’s strategy, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Hong Kong is under consideration as a possible listing venue, one of the people said.
(Related: China Is About to Give Global Finance the Chance of a Lifetime)
FWD, which manages more than $26.6 billion of assets, had over 2.7 million customers spread across eight Asian markets at the end of last year, according to its website. Li, the son of Hong Kong’s richest man, formed the company after spending $2.1 billion to buy ING Groep NV’s insurance and pension units in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand in 2013.
A listing of FWD would cap Li’s return to the Asian insurance industry after he sold a previous venture, Pacific Century Insurance Holdings Ltd., to Fortis in 2007. First-time share sales in Hong Kong have raised $6.3 billion this year, compared with $7 billion during the same period in 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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Deliberations are at an early stage, and there’s no certainty they will lead to a transaction, according to the people. The timing of any listing could slip depending on market conditions, the people said. A representative for FWD declined to comment.
