Jack Ma's MassMutual deal shows promise

Yunfeng Financial

18/08/2017 09:09

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions 
expressed are his own.) 
    By Alec Macfarlane 
    HONG KONG, Aug 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The Alibaba 
founder's unit Yunfeng Financial is buying MassMutual's Hong 
Kong arm. The $1.7 bln deal with the U.S. insurer helps turn 
Yunfeng into a broader financial group, by adding insurance and 
pensions operations. Once again, Ma is melding online and 
offline businesses.    
    Full view will be published shortly. 
    On Twitter https://twitter.com/AlecMac11 
     
    CONTEXT NEWS 
    - A group of investors led by Yunfeng Financial, a financial 
services firm backed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, agreed to buy 
the Hong Kong operations of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance 
for $1.7 billion.  
    - MassMutual will receive $1 billion in cash and 800 million 
shares in Hong Kong-listed Yunfeng valued at HK$6.50 ($0.83) 
each, or $668 million. The stake will represent roughly 24.8 
percent of Yunfeng's expanded share capital, MassMutual said in 
a statement on Aug. 17.  
    - Yunfeng will own 60 percent of MassMutual Asia, while a 
group of investors including Singaporean sovereign wealth fund 
GIC and Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of 
Alibaba, will own the rest.  
    - MassMutual Asia has two main units, one that manages its 
general insurance business, and another focusing on compulsory 
pension plans for the Hong Kong residents.   
    - For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can 
click on  MAC/  
    - SIGN UP FOR BREAKINGVIEWS EMAIL ALERTS: http://bit.ly/BVsubscribe 
 
    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
Jack Ma-backed Yunfeng leads $1.7 billion purchase of MassMutual 
Asia unit     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1L4159 
Yunfeng announcement     http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2017/0817/LTN201708171069.pdf 
BREAKINGVIEWS - Advertisers rise to VIP status for Alibaba    
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1L33PE 
BREAKINGVIEWS - Alibaba's insurer offers new play on online boom 
    urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1JY34N 
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> 
 (Editing by Quentin Webb and Kathy Gao) 
 ((alec.macfarlane@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: 
alec.macfarlane.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: MASSMUTUAL M&A/BREAKINGVIEWS