ZhongAn Plans to Expand to Life Insurance Post IPO
According to Reuters, Chinese insurer ZhongAn is planning to expand to life insurance and other healthcare products after it goes public in Hong Kong. Also, it will offer its technology to insurers inside and outside of China, for an additional revenue source.
Speaking of its IPO, as it stands, Japan’s SoftBank (think: investors in WeWork, Uber and SoFi) will be a lead investor, with plans to purchase a ~5% stake in the online insurer – to the tune of $550 million. “This is a good marriage for the company in the sense that this is a very strategic, visionary investor and they’ve done a lot of study into the company. Softbank is definitely a very strong stamp of approval” – ZhongAn CFO Francis Tang.
What success sounds like? 8.2 billion policies sold to some 543 million people since inception in 2013 in five areas: travel, health, consumer finance, auto and lifestyle consumption. Recall: ZhongAn’s first insurance product was Zhong Le Bao, a merchant performance bond introduced on Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace in November 2013. Merchants that purchased this coverage – for 30 RMB (~$4.50) annually – were eligible for consumer-related services without paying a deposit to Alibaba.
