FWD Group, an Asian insurer controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, is planning to file a listing application to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong as early as the end of February for an around US$2bn IPO, said people with knowledge of the matter.
The listing is expected in May or June, said the people.
An FWD spokesman declined to comment.
The company in December withdrew its 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. FWD, 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 then 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 will force it to give 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, currently owns 72.7% 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.
FWD announced in December it had raised US$1.425bn from a private placement. The round values the company around US$9bn, a source close to the deal told IFR at the time.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, CMB International and HSBC are arranging the IPO.