FWD Group, an Asian insurer controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, has raised US$1.425bn from a private placement ahead of a Hong Kong IPO next year, said people with knowledge of the matter.
FWD, which has filed for a US IPO, has decided to turn to Hong Kong instead for a listing that could come in the first half of next year.
To fulfil the requirements for a Hong Kong listing, FWD is considering unwinding its dual-class share structure which has allowed Li to have more voting power than other shareholders, said the people.
The company declined to comment.
FWD pre-marketed the US float of around US$2bn in October but was questioned by the US Securities and Exchange Commission about its ties to China. The company, which has no substantive operations in mainland China, then added a disclosure in its filing that “it cannot guarantee that the PRC government will not seek to intervene or influence its operations at any time”.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, HSBC and CMB International are the bookrunners.
FWD originally planned to list in Hong Kong in around mid-2021 but the city’s regulators told the insurer it was not an innovative company and hence could not list in Hong Kong with a weighted voting rights structure, people with knowledge of the matter told IFR at the time.