AIG dijo que conseguio $17.8 billones en la oferta inicial (IPO) de su unidad AIA en Hong Kong.
AIG Said to Raise $17.8 Billion in AIA's Record Hong Kong IPO
By Cathy Chan and Bei Hu - Oct 21, 2010 7:57 PM ET
American International Group Inc. raised about HK$138 billion ($17.8 billion) selling shares in its main Asian unit, AIA Group Ltd., in the largest initial public offering in Hong Kong, said three people with knowledge of the matter.
AIG, the bailed-out insurer, sold 5.86 billion existing shares in AIA, or a 49 percent stake, at HK$19.68 apiece, said the people, who declined to be identified before an official statement. AIG also exercised an option to sell 1.17 billion more shares at the same price, the people said.
Investors are buying into what was once called a crown jewel of the world’s largest insurer. AIG Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche, 66, has said that the company would be “well within striking distance” of repaying the Federal Reserve after divesting AIA and another non-U.S. unit, American Life Insurance Co.
“Most investors we cover who claim interest articulate strong demographics-based growth arguments and a belief in a potentially attractive valuation,” said Charles Stucke, a senior managing director of Guggenheim Partners LLC. “AIA’s anticipated market capitalization may earn it a spot within regional and global indexes. Speculation about this is said to also be driving interest in the AIA IPO.”
Mark Herr, a spokesman for AIG in New York, declined to comment. AIA’s IPO surpassed the $16 billion Hong Kong IPO by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. in 2006, the largest such share sale in the city, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
AIA’s Value
AIA is valued at $30.6 billion, or about 1.18 times its embedded value of $25.8 billion next year as estimated in a Sept. 24 report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., one of the banks involved in the IPO.
Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., China’s second-largest insurer, trades at about 2.3 times embedded value and China Life Insurance Co., the nation’s largest, is valued at 2.1 times, according to a Sept. 24 report by Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch & Co. unit.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index has risen 8.1 percent this year, compared with the 5.8 percent gain of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
AIA operates in 15 Asian markets with 309,000 agents, 24,500 employees and more than 23 million in-force policies. It forecasts operating profit of at least $2 billion for the year ending November.
The unit had about $1.78 billion in operating profit in 2009, down from $1.87 billion in 2008, according to its IPO prospectus.
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and Morgan Stanley led banks arranging the IPO, according to the prospectus.
To contact the reporters on this story: Bei Hu in Hong Kong at
bhu5@bloomberg.net; Hugh Son in New York at
hson1@bloomberg.net