China’s Anbang Insurance Group is considering launching an IPO next year in Hong Kong, Bloomberg and others are reporting.
The Beijing-based company’s public offering could include its domestic life insurance business as well as many of its overseas businesses.
Going public would crack open some of the insurance giant’s financial infrastructure, ownership and expansion plans. Anbang has announced at least $13.5 billion of acquisitions during the last two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Anbang, which purchased the Waldorf Astoria in New York City in 2015 for a record-setting US$1.95 billion, purchased Strategic Hotels & Resorts from Blackstone for US$6.5 billion in March and shortly after that counterbid against Marriott International’s US$12.2 billion proposal for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, ultimately raising Marriott’s purchase price.
“For an IPO of Anbang to succeed, it will need to carefully lay its strategy before investors and explain in detail the intended use of proceeds,” Philippe Espinasse, former head of Asia equity capital markets at Nomura Holdings, told Bloomberg. The company did not comment.