Axa looks to offload its stake in Chinese Taikang Life arm
FRENCH insurer AXA has started the ball rolling on a Chinese asset sale that could raise as much as $1bn (£604m).
Axa will sell the 15.6 per cent Taikang Life Insurance Company stake it took on when it bought Swiss group Winterthur in 2006.
The group has enlisted US investment bank Morgan Stanley to advise on the sale, according to sources, which is expected to garner interest from private equity houses.
Taikang, the fourth-largest life insurer in China, launched in 1996, when the People’s Bank of China gave its approval to Chen Dongsheng to launch an incorporated life insurer.
Today the Beijing-based firm has 120 branches and distributes through 150,000 independent agents.
After years of investments and partnerships in China, many foreign shareholders are now reconsidering their strategy as minority shareholders in Chinese firms often have little influence at top management levels.
Several American and European banks sold their stakes in Chinese financial groups earlier this year, allowing them to raise cash and exit partnerships that gave them little control.