Ping An, the Chinese insurer, is to buy half of Fortis’s asset management business for €2.15bn ($3.4bn). The insurer, already Fortis’s largest shareholder, also underlined its growing clout in the Belgo-Dutch group by revealing that it had increased its stake from 4.18% to almost 5%. The asset management deal will help Fortis to shore up its finances after reporting a €2.7bn pre-tax, subprime-related writedown. Fortis said this month it was in exclusive talks with a then-unidentified party over a €2bn deal to boost its financial strength. Ping An, which on Wednesday reported a sharp increase in profits, plans to raise up to $15.6bn via a share and convertible bond sale to help fund its expansion.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 5:49 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A. Tagged with fortis, ping an. Edit this entry.