Genworth Financial Inc. may have now cleared the last major barrier it controls to getting itself hitched to China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co. Ltd.
(Related: Canada Throws China Oceanwide-Genworth Deal a Lifeline)
The Richmond, Virginia-based insurer announced today that it has closed on the sale of a majority stake in Genworth MI Canada Inc., a large mortgage insurance business, to Brookfield Business Partners of Toronto.
Genworth will emerge from that deal with about $1.8 billion in cash, Genworth said.
Genworth has also appears to have eliminated the need to get approval for the China Oceanwide deal from regulators in Canada.
China Oceanwide is a Beijing-based real estate developer and financial services company that’s been trying to acquire Genworth for more than three years.
Federal regulators in the United States originally questioned the idea of Genworth’s customer data might end up in the hands of a Chinese government.