Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority appoints managers to take control of troubled Tahoe Life
- Derek Lai and Forrest Kam from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Oliver Cheng from Deloitte Advisory have been appointed joint managers to handle day-to-day operations
Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority has for the first time taken over control of a distressed life insurance company based in the city.
The regulator said in a statement on Friday that it had appointed managers to take control of all assets and operations of Tahoe Life Insurance.
Tahoe Life, indirectly controlled by mainland Chinese developer Tahoe Group’s chairman Huang Qisen, has about 90,000 life policies worth HK$18 billion (US$2.3 billion), giving it a market share of less than 1 per cent, according to the authority.
Since 2021, Tahoe Life has been banned by the authority from issuing new policies, restricted its investments and prevented it from trading with any company with connections to Tahoe Group after a HK$2.2 billion debt investment connected with its parent became worthless in July 2020.
The takeover came after the Insurance Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission undertook a joint investigation over the HK$2.2 billion investment, as it was illegal and was not approved by the insurance regulator.
The company was also unable to issue financial reports in 2022 and 2023 and could not find a new buyer after the financial troubles of its mainland parent came to light.
