Both Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG:0700) joined hands to invest in Ping An Insurance (Grp) Co of China Ltd. (HKG:2318). The insurance company raised $4.7 billion out of the deal and registered as one of the largest share offerings in Hong Kong during the financial year.
Ping An Insurance is the second largest insurer of China and the insurance company offered 594 million shares in a private placement at HK $62 per share. The insurance company is likely to use the proceedings towards online finance sector and its backed by some of the largest technology companies of the world including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG:0700).
All of these three companies have a history of collaborated investments including Zhong An Online Property Insurance in 2013, which was also the first online insurance seller of China. Prior to this investment, “Three Mas” (including Jack Ma of Alibaba, Pony Ma of Tencent, and Ma Mingzhe) invested in HUAYI BROTHERS MEDIA CORPORATION (SHE:300027) last month.
According to Li Jun, Changjiang Securities, Ping An Insurance (Grp) Co of China Ltd. (HKG:2318) is focusing towards online finance growth and as per the stats, the online insurance sales reached 62.2 billion Yuan in the first quarter of 2014.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is facing multiple issues in the United States including its head-to-head fight with the local retailers. In one of the latest incidents, retailers like Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY), J C Penney Company Inc (NYSE:JCP), Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) and similar chains have come together to urge the US Government to end special tax benefits enjoyed by the online retailers. What’s even more crucial is the timing of the campaign as it was launched a day before Cyber Monday.
As of now, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is serving its US customers through AliExpress.
This article has been written by Prakash Pandey.
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