Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Anbang Insurance Group

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Native name
  
安邦保险集团

Industry
  
Financial services

Products
  
Diversified Insurance

Headquarters
  
Beijing

Type
  
private

Key people
  
Wu Xiaohui, CEO

CEO
  
Wu Xiaohui (2004–)

Founded
  
2004

Anbang Insurance Group llenrockcomwpcontentuploads201605221449380a

Area served
  
People's Republic of China

Anbang Insurance Group (Chinese: 安邦保险; pinyin: Ānbāng bǎoxiǎn) is a Chinese holding company whose subsidiaries mainly deal with insurance, banking, and financial services. The company was founded in 2004 as a regionally based property insurance business with its headquarters in Beijing. Its founding shareholders included state-owned car maker Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp., which held a 20% stake. In 2005 state-owned oil company Sinopec bought a 20% share.

As of February 2015, the company had assets worth more than CN¥800 billion (US$123 billion). The Financial Times has described Anbang as "one of China’s most politically connected companies."

Anbang Insurance has more than 30,000 employees in China and is engaged in offering various kinds of insurance and financial products.

Overseas acquisitions

The company holds a geographically diversified portfolio of assets in financial services real estate and lodging.

  • In 2014, Anbang Insurance acquired Belgium insurer, FIDEA Assurances.
  • In 2014, Anbang Insurance purchased the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel from Blackstone for nearly US$2 billion.
  • In 2015 Anbang purchased Dutch insurer Vivat from the Dutch state. They paid €150m outright, and agreed to infuse between €770m and €1bn in fresh capital, and to take on €550m of debt.
  • In 2015 Anbang paid US$1 billion for a 57.5% stake in South Korea’s Tongyang Life, an insurance company, in what was reported to be the first direct investment in a South Korean financial institution by a mainland China entity.
  • In November 2015, Anbang announced that it would buy Iowa-based insurer Fidelity & Guaranty Life for about $1.57 billion.
  • In March 2016, Blackstone agreed to a further US$6.5 billion sale of 16 landmark US hotels owned by the Strategic Hotels & Resorts REIT, including the historic Hotel del Coronado near San Diego, the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, several Four Seasons resorts, and Manhattan's JW Marriott Essex House hotel.
  • In April 2016, Anbang purchased Allianz’s South Korea operations.
  • In November 2016, the Globe&Mail reported that Anbang is buying a stake in Retirement Concepts, a Canadian company with 24 retirement homes in British Columbia, Calgary and Montreal. Anbang must obtain approval from the Canadian government to close the deal.

    • Anbang has also made large-scale bids that did not culminate in a transaction. On March 14, 2016, a consortium led by Anbang made a US$14 Billion offer for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. Other members of the consortium included J.C. Flowers & Co and Primavera Capital Group. The latter is headed by Fred Hu, the former Chairman of Greater China at Goldman Sachs. The bid was ultimately unsuccessful.

    References

    Anbang Insurance Group Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA