Jack Ma-backed Yunfeng Financial expects to take at least a year to complete US$1.7b MassMutual’s Asian unit acquisition
Yunfeng says its YouYu Robo Advisor has so far signed partnerships with 15 asset managers including investment giants BlackRock, Pimco and AXA
Alibaba chairman Jack Ma-backed Yunfeng Financial Group, which is leading the US$1.7 billion acquisition of the Asian unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, said it won’t complete the deal until the third quarter of 2018 due to the complex approval process involved.
“We hope to complete the transaction by this time next year, depending on shareholder and regulatory approval,” Li Ting, Yunfeng Financial’s chief executive told the South China Morning Post. “This is quite a long process.”
According to Li, the deal announced in August is pending a number of approvals, including shareholder approvals of the acquisition and Whitewash Waiver and approvals by Hong Kong Insurance Authority, the The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, Monetary Authority of Macao and other bodies.
Hong Kong-based Yunfeng will own 60 per cent of MassMutual Asia. The rest will be owned by other investors such as Ant Financial Services, another affiliate of Alibaba, as well as Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Private, and Chinese internet firm, Sina Corp.
Yunfeng, formally the brokerage Reorient Group, has transformed itself into one of the city’s leading financial technology firms followed investment from Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm set up by Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, and Chinese entrepreneur David Yu.
Li said the company had already obtained most licences they want from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) including Type 1, 4, 6 and 9, with “insurance-related licences the only one left to build our financial ecosystem”.
