Ping An Global Offering Receives Favourable Response

Time: 2004-06-22 Source: Font: big middle small

HONG KONG, 22 June, 2004 C Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (Ping An or the Company; HKSE stock code 2318), a leading insurance group in the PRC, announced today that the final offer price for its Global Offering has been set at HK$10.33 per share (excluding 1.012% of the offer price for brokerage fee, trading fee imposed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and an investor compensation levy and transaction levy imposed by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong).
The offer size is 1,387,892,000 H shares or 22.40% of the enlarged share capital of the Company after completion of the Global Offering. The Company and the Selling Shareholders have granted to the international underwriters an over-allotment option of up to an aggregate of 208,183,000 additional H shares, representing around 15% of the Global Offering.

The total proceeds raised from the Global Offering (before deduction of the underwriting fees and other expenses, and assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised) are approximately HK$14.3 billion, making it the largest initial public offering in Hong Kong in 2004 to date.

During the Hong Kong Public Offering period, which lasted for three-and-a-half business days, retail investors subscribed approximately 4.030 billion shares. This translates into subscription of approximately 58 times the initial Hong Kong Public Offering size of 69,395,000 H shares.

The clawback mechanism as specified in the Companys prospectus has been applied, which increases the size of the Hong Kong Public Offering tranche to 208,184,000 H shares, representing 15% of the entire Global Offering. The basis of allocation of shares to investors in the Hong Kong Public Offering will be published in the South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Economic Times on June 23, 2004.

Dr. Peter Ma Mingzhe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ping An, said, We are very much encouraged by the strong support from Hong Kong and global investors. The PRC insurance industry is expanding steadily, and the positive response from the Hong Kong public clearly reflects their vote of confidence in Ping An and our ability to capture the new business opportunities in the fast-growing PRC market.

Since our establishment, we have been committed to delivering the best and most innovative services to our customers. We will continue to build on our core insurance franchise to develop a strong multiple financial services business in the PRC and to create value for our shareholders, he said.

The Companys H shares are expected to start trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday, 24 June, 2004, with stock code 2318.

BOC International Holdings Limited, Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Asia Limited (in alphabetical order) are the Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners for this Global Offering.