Vogo to exit South Korea's Tong Yang Life to China insurer in $1b deal

Anbang will buy a 63% stake in the business, acquiring 67.8 million shares at KRW16,700 a share. The sellers include Vogo - which holds a 57.5% stake - and two other minority investors: Taiwanese Yuanta Securities Korea, and Lee Min-joo, chairman of Seoul-based investment firm Atinum Partners.

Vogo originally acquired a 17% stake in Tong Yang in 2006 through Vogo Fund I. The firm then acquired a controlling stake in 2010 through Vogo Fund II, a project-specific fund dedicated to the acquisition.

Tong Yang Life has assets of KRW20.4 trillion and posted a record KRW164.4 billion won in net profit for 2014. Shares in the company closed 3% higher to KRW11,850 in Seoul today; the share has climbed around 10% this year so far.

The deal - which still needs approval for the sale with the Financial Services Commission - is understood to be the first time that a South Korean financial institution has been sold to a mainland Chinese company. Anbang, one of the leading Chinese insurers, has been a fairly investor in recent months.

In December it made a $2.7 billion bid for Woori Bank, but was unsuccessful due to lack of competing bid. Meanwhile, in October it agreed to buy the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York from Hilton Worldwide Holdings, a portfolio company of The Blackstone Group, for $1.95 billion.

 

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Financials
• South Korea
• Vogo Investment
• Financial Services