PICC to test water for $3b HK IPO

People's Insurance Company (Group) of China, the nation's largest property insurer, plans to start meeting investors on Nov 15 to gauge demand for an initial public offering that may raise more than $3 billion in Hong Kong, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The insurer, based in Beijing, is seeking a price that values the whole company at or above 125 billion yuan ($20 billion), said the people, asking not to be identified as the information is private. That's a premium to the valuation PICC Group received in a sale to China's national Social Security Fund last year, they said.

The IPO is expected to account for about 16 percent of PICC Group's enlarged share capital, the people said. The size of the stake has not been finalized, they said. The Social Security Fund acquired 11.3 percent of PICC Group for 10 billion yuan in June last year, according to a statement on the fund's website. That transaction values the insurer at about 90 billion yuan.

Bloomberg - Reuters