MetLife Reportedly Following Other Groups In Selling HK-Based Insurance Units

Tom Burroughes

25 January 2018

US-listed wants to sell its Hong Kong insurance unit and is preparing to inform potential bidders in the next few weeks, potentially getting over $600 million for the business, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

If MetLife sells the firm it will be following in the footsteps of organisations such as MassMutual and AXA, the report said.

The report said MetLife is looking to exploit a surge of interest in winning a Hong Kong insurance licence.

Among recent deals, AXA, the French financial group, agreed in December sell its Hong Kong wealth management unit to a local family office, while a group led by tech billionaire Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Financial Group Ltd. said in August it would buy control of Hong Kong-based MassMutual Asia Ltd. for $1.7 billion. In the case of the AXA deal, it sold its Swiss Privilege franchise, called AXA Wealth Management (HK) Ltd, to Jeneration Holdings Ltd. The unit was sold for HK$2.2 billion; that transaction is expected to be finalised by the end of this year or early 2019.

MetLife Hong Kong has an embedded value of around $400 million, the news service said, citing sources. It added that MetLife declined to comment.

This news service has contacted MetLife for comment; it had not received a response at the time of going to press.