Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 1-Oct-2008 02:45 hrs
Staff members from the Ping An Insurance company serve customers in 2007. Embattled Belgian-Dutch bank and insurance group Fortis said Tuesday the planned 2.15 billion euro (3.0 billion dollars) sale of half its asset management arm to China's Ping An Insurance is unlikely to go through.
Embattled Belgian-Dutch bank and insurance group Fortis said Tuesday the planned 2.15 billion euro (3.0 billion dollars) sale of half its asset management arm to China's Ping An Insurance is unlikely to go through.
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"Fortis announces that it expects not to be able to complete the asset management partnership with Ping An. Fortis Investments will remain, as at present, 100 percent owned by Fortis group," it said in a statement.
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Fortis succumbed to the global financial crisis and had to be bailed out by the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments over the weekend to the tune of 11.2 billion euros.
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After plunging nearly 24 percent on Monday as investors feared for its future, Fortis shares rebounded on Tuesday to gain more than 11 percent.
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Ping An, China's second largest life insurer, spent 1.8 billion euros to acquire a 4.18 percent stake in Fortis last year in one of the largest ever overseas acquisitions by a Chinese insurer. The stake has since been raised to 4.99 percent.
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In March, the two companies announced that Ping An intended to acquire a 50 percent equity stake in Fortis Investments. The deal had not yet received regulatory approval.
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Fortis said it was issuing the statement on the deal "in order to provide clarity to the market in the context of the current severe market disruption and the ongoing uncertainty in the global capital markets." — AFP
