Moody's outlook on the Korean banking system has been negative since May 2016.
HONG KONG: Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. is in talks to purchase a stake in Hong Kong fund house Value Partners Group Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be at least its fourth investment in an asset manager in half a year.
HNA is in discussions to buy at least part of Chairman Cheah Cheng Hye’s holding in Value Partners, which he helped found in 1993, the people said. It may then seek to increase its stake further, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
A transaction could value the company, one of Asia’s largest independent asset managers by market capitalization, at more than $2 billion, another person said.
The parties aim to reach a deal within the next few weeks, according to the people. No final agreements have been signed, and there’s no certainty the talks will result in a transaction, the people said.
Value Partners, which has expressed ambitions of becoming the Asian equivalent of Fidelity Investments, had about $15 billion of assets under management at the end of April, according to an exchange filing last week.
HNA agreed to buy 25 percent of Old Mutual Plc’s U.S. asset management arm in March as the acquisitive aviation-to-hotels group pushes forward with a buying spree across the financial services industry.
It reached a deal in January for a $200 million stake in Skybridge Capital, the U.S. fund-of-hedge funds firm founded by Anthony Scaramucci, and purchased control of Austrian asset manager C-Quadrat Investment AG this month.
Representatives for HNA and Value Partners declined to comment. Cheah didn’t immediately reply to emailed queries, and a call to his office wasn’t answered.
Cheah started out as a journalist before working in market research in the 1980s. He and his family have about a 28 percent interest in Value Partners, according to Hong Kong exchange filings.
Shares of the company have climbed 17 percent this year through Friday, outperforming the 14 percent gain in Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index. - Bloomberg
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