Vogo-backed Tongyang Life chosen as preferred bidder ING Korea unit – report
A consortium led by Tongyang Life Insurance, which is majority-owned by Vogo Investment, has reportedly been chosen as the preferred bidder for ING Groep’s South Korean life insurance unit. The consortium is said to have offered around KRW2 trillion ($1.7 billion).
A proposal to grant Tongyang exclusive rights to negotiate for the asset was on the agenda for ING's board meeting yesterday, according to The Wall Street Journal. ING and Tongyang are South Korea's fifth and eighth-largest life insurers by assets, respectively.
Four bids were submitted for the life insurance unit in May, with MBK Partners, Hanwha Life Insurance and Kyobo Life Insurance completing the quartet. While Tongyang made an offer for the business outright, others only wanted certain parts of it.
ING is on a deadline to sell more than 50% of its Asian operations by the end of 2013, as part of the conditions tied to a EUR10 billion ($13 billion) state bailout agreement from 2008. It can divest the remaining interest by the end of 2016.
The Dutch group has already made deals to sell its Hong Kong, Malaysian and Thai businesses for a total of $3.9 billion. The Malaysia unit went to AIA Group while the latter two were picked up by Richard Li's Pacific Century Group for EUR1.64 billion. The Japan operations have yet to be sold.
Vogo bought bought 17% of Tongyang in 2006 on the condition that it would get first refusal on any further sale. This happened in 2010 and Vogo's stake rose to 64%.
More on Financials
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.