HSBC’s $9.4bn sale of its stake in China’s Ping An Insurance has been thrown into doubt after Thai buyer CP Group lost funding for some of the 15.6 per cent shareholding.
CP Group, which had already bought 3.2 per cent in the Chinese insurer from the UK bank, was planning to part-fund the balance with loans from China Development Bank. But people with knowledge of CDB’s plans said the Chinese state-owned lender had changed its mind, presenting a major obstacle to completion of the deal.
One of the people said that CDB financing will “100 per cent not happen”. A second person said that “unless someone really senior tells them to go ahead and do it, they are not going to do it”.