A €1bn offer by Fosun International, China’s largest private conglomerate, has won the bidding for control of state-owned Caixa Seguros, Portugal’s largest insurance group, defeating a rival shortlisted offer from Apollo Global Management, a US investment fund.
The Lisbon government said on Thursday that Fosun would acquire an 80 per cent stake in the Portuguese company, which is owned by state-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) and has a 26 per cent share of the country’s insurance market.
Fosun is the third Chinese investor to buy large-scale Portuguese assets that have been privatised since the country requested a €78bn international bailout in 2011.