Telecommunications firm SoftBank’s $93bn Vision Fund is mulling a $500m investment in China-based online insurance provider ZhongAn through its forthcoming initial public offering, IFR reported yesterday, citing people close to the deal.
Founded in 2013 by e-commerce firm Alibaba’s Ant Financial affiliate, internet group Tencent and insurer Ping An, ZhongAn runs an online property and casualty insurance platform.
The company offers about 300 different policies to customers, and its packages covering e-commerce returns are particularly popular.
The IPO is set to take place on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as early as next week and is expected to raise between $1bn and $1.5bn for ZhongAn, which earlier reports suggested will issue between 5% and 10% of its shares through the offering.
Ant Financial owns 16% of ZhongAn’s shares while Tencent and Ping An both hold 12.1% stakes.
ZhongAn was valued at $8bn as of a $934m round in 2015 featuring Morgan Stanley, China International Capital, CDH Investments and Keywise Capital Management.