FWD eyeing Singapore for US$3b IPO

FWD Group, controlled by billionaire Richard Li Tzar-kai, is seeking a listing in Singapore or through a combination with a US-listed blank-check company, to keep its dual-class shareholding structure, Reuters' IFR reported yesterday.

FWD Group had been working on a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise up to US$3 billion (HK$23.4 billion), the report said. However, the city's listing rules only permit innovative companies to carry a weighted voting rights structure, and FWD failed to meet that requirement.

FWD's IPO would be Asia's biggest by an insurance company since Japan Post's US$5.7 billion offering in 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The insurer now is considering listing in Singapore, which allows dual-class shares listing. It is also mulling a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in the United States.

Li is planning to set up a third special purpose acquisition company in the US after he and tech mogul Peter Thiel have raised about US$900 million via two US-listed SPACs under the Bridgetown brand, Bloomberg reported earlier.

Founded in 2013, FWD has US$56.6 billion in assets under management and serves markets, including Hong Kong and Macau, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia.

Its minority shareholders include fellow insurer Swiss Re AG, which bought a 12.3 percent stake in 2013, as well as GIC Ventures, RRJ Capital and Hopu Investments.

Meanwhile, mainland online travel giant Trip.com is seeking a Hong Kong secondary listing to raise at least US$1 billion in April. The company had approached China International Capital Corp (3908), JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley for its planned share sale.

China's largest microblogging service, Weibo, is said by people with knowledge of the matter to be planning a second listing in Hong Kong as soon as the second quarter of this year, with an aim to raising up to US$700 million, mainland media reported.

In other news, Chinese drugmaker SciClone Pharmaceuticals has attracted HK$63.4 billion in retail orders through margin financing, data from local brokers showed. That means the retail tranche of the initial public offering was oversubscribed by 289 times.

SciClone Pharmaceuticals, one of the Covid-19 drug developers, is seeking to raise up to HK$2.18 billion.