China's Fosun Pursues U.S. IPO of Insurance Unit
June 23 2016 - 8:00AM
Dow Jones News
An arm of Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group is seeking approval
for a U.S. initial public offering of Ironshore Inc., the U.S.
insurer it acquired last year.
Fosun International Ltd. said Thursday it had submitted an
application with the Hong Kong stock exchange seeking approval for
a spinoff and separate listing of the insurance company on either
the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.
Shanghai-based Fosun said it would make further announcements
related to the planned IPO when appropriate or required under the
listing rules.
The potential size of the IPO wasn't disclosed. Fosun couldn't
be reached for comment.
Fosun agreed to buy the 80% of Ironshore it didn't already own
in May 2015 for $1.84 billion. The deal was part of Fosun's effort
to make insurance a greater share of its core operations.
The company bought an initial 20% stake in Ironshore for about
$463.8 million in 2014.
Fosun, which is run by chairman and co-founder Guo Guangchang,
has interests in everything from mining to real estate and is one
of China's biggest conglomerates by assets.
The company has made cutting debt and consolidation of its
recent acquisitions a priority this year. Fosun, whose marquee
deals include buying resort operator Club Mé diterrané e SA and a
stake in avant-garde circus troupe Cirque du Soleil, has been
scaling back its international deal making in the past six
months.
Last month, S&P Global Ratings lowered the outlook for its
rating of Fosun International's credit to negative from stable,
citing concern about the Chinese conglomerate's debt remaining high
after recent acquisitions.
Write to Alec Macfarlane at alec.macfarlane@wsj.com and Wei Gu
at wei.gu@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 23, 2016 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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