China's largest online insurer starts US$1.5 billion Hong Kong IPO

(Sept 19): ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance, China’s largest online insurer, started taking orders for a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise as much as US$1.5 billion ($2.02 billion).

The Shanghai-based company is offering 199.3 million new shares at HK$53.70 ($9.23) to HK$59.70 apiece, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg. Japan’s SoftBank Group agreed to purchase 71.9 million shares, worth as much as US$550 million, as the sole cornerstone investor in the offering, the terms show.

ZhongAn is pursuing the first major fintech listing in Hong Kong amid a rally in the city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index, which last month hit its highest level in more than two years. Any deal would add to the US$9.3 billion of first-time share sales in Hong Kong this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

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