TPG Selling Ping An Stake for Up to $1.26B

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Newbridge Asia, a unit of buyout fund TPG, is selling 160 million shares in China’s Ping An Insurance (2318.HK) (601318.SS) for up to $1.26 billion, according to a term sheet obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

Newbridge is selling the shares in a price range of HK$60.52-$61.28 each, which will raise up to HK$9.8 billion. Ping An shares rose 3 percent to HK$63.50.

Newbridge acquired 299.1 million Ping An shares this month in exchange for giving a stake in Shenzhen Development Bank Co to the Chinese insurer. The deal made Ping An the Shenzhen bank’s biggest shareholder with a 21 percent stake.

In exchange, TPG got a 4 percent stake in Ping An, the world’s second largest insurer.

The sale of the Ping An shares would give the U.S. private equity firm a hefty profit. TPG acquired a 17 percent stake in Shenzhen Development Bank in 2004 for $150 million. (Reporting by Michael Flaherty; Editing by Chris Lewis and David Holmes)