Stake sale sparks exodus from insurer
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, March 20, 2014
State-owned shareholders continued to exit Shanghai-based general insurer Dazhong Insurance Co after Besttone Holding Co said it would sell its 3.31 percent stake in the insurer.
Besttone, a state-owned telecommunication company, will sell all its 47.46 million shares of Dazhong Insurance via the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange, the firm said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange late on Tuesday.
US-based Starr Group, led by Maurice Greenberg, the former CEO of AIG, now holds 59.2 percent in Dazhong Insurance after the China Insurance Regulatory Commission approved a milestone purchase of a 39 percent stake for US$1.2 billion from Shanghai government's state-owned assets administration last month.
In January, Starr Indemnity & Liability Co signed deals with two other state-owned companies to acquire 11.41 percent in Dazhong Insurance. The transactions are pending approval by the CIRC.
Greenberg told Wall Street Journal this week in an interview that Starr Group seeks to acquire nearly 93 percent of Dazhong Insurance to tap China's property insurance market.
The insurer's profit nearly halved in 2012 from a year earlier to 38.9 million yuan (US$6.28 million), according to its annual report.
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