Hopu, Blackstone among bidders for AXA's China stake

Mon 09 Nov, 2009 04:48

By George Chen and Michael Flaherty

HONG KONG (Reuters) - French insurer AXA's 5.6 percent stake in China's No.4 life insurer, Taikang, attracted foreign and domestic bidders, including Temasek and Blackstone, valuing the holding at more than $1 billion (598 million pounds), sources told Reuters on Monday.

Other bidders included Bain Capital, KKR, and two Chinese private equity firms, Hopu Investments and Hony Capital, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

All bids were received by last Friday's first-round deadline. Sources previously told Reuters that Morgan Stanley was the sellside adviser for the auction.

AXA's efforts to sell off its stake in Beijing-based Taikang came amid Europe's second-largest insurer's plan for a $2 billion euro ($2.98 billion) capital raising as part of its Asian growth strategy.

AXA inherited the stake in Taikang in 2006 when it agreed to buy Swiss insurance company Winterthur. AXA had at one time valued Taikang at around $100 million, one of the sources said.

In China, AXA also has AXA-Minmetals Assurance Co Ltd, a 51/49 joint venture between AXA Group and state-owned China Minmetals Group, which has no relation to Taikang, and AXA plans to invest more in AXA-Minmetals to expand its insurance coverage to more Chinese cities, said the sources.

Hopu is an influential China-focussed private equity firm run by top dealmaker Fang Fenglei, who helped Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs set up its landmark China investment banking joint venture. Hopu's main investors include Singapore's state investor Temasek and Goldman Sachs.

Hony is an investment arm of China's top PC maker Legend Holdings, which has listed arm Lenovo Group Ltd.

Morgan Stanley, Blackstone, KKR, Bain, Temasek and Hopu declined to comment. Hony and AXA could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Additional reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram in Hong Kong and Saeed Azhar in Singapore; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)