Ping An Group, China's No. 2 life insurer, said on Tuesday that it plans to buy 4.25% of the mid-tier Industrial Bank. London-based HSBC Holdings PLC owns nearly one-fifth of Ping An.
After reportedly agreeing to pay $24.2 million for a 1.75% stake, the insurer plans to buy another 100 million shares, or a 2.5% stake, through a limited auction in Beijing on Thursday, a Ping An spokesman, Sheng Ruisheng, was reported as saying. The stake would initially just be a financial investment, he said.
Pricing on the second portion is to be announced after the auction.
The two-stage deal would make Ping An the fourth-largest shareholder of Industrial Bank, a domestic commercial bank in the southern province of Fujian. It operates about 300 branches in China.
