FWD Group, an Asian insurer controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, has won listing approval from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong for its IPO of about US$1bn, said people with knowledge of the matter.
The company has not decided when to start pre-marketing yet as current market conditions are challenging, said the people.
IFR reported in February FWD is expected to list in May or June.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, CMB International and JP Morgan are the sponsors, and HSBC is the financial adviser.
FWD in December withdrew a US IPO application after months of trying to list there. It had pre-marketed the US float 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”.
It decided to go for a Hong Kong IPO instead after considering the potential regulatory risk of pressing ahead with a US listing, even though this involved giving up a proposed dual-class share structure that would have granted Li extra voting power.
FWD had originally planned to list in Hong Kong around the middle of last year but regulators told the insurer it was not an innovative company and hence could not list in the city with a weighted voting rights structure.
Li, via PCGI Holdings, owns 76.9% of FWD. The US IPO filing had said all the shares held by PCGI would be converted to Class B shares with 10 times the voting power of the Class A shares.
The Hong Kong filing has no mention of any weighted voting rights structure.
FWD posted an adjusted net profit of US$249m for 2021, compared with a loss of US$216m for 2020.
FWD recently raised US$1.625bn from a pre-IPO round which sources familiar with the situation said values the company at around US$9bn. Apollo, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Li Ka Shing Foundation, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, Pacific Century Group, Siam Commercial Bank, Swiss Re, Huatai and ORIX Asia Capital are the investors.
Founded in 2013, FWD operates in 10 markets across Asia with a focus on South-East Asia.