Sino-Ocean Land Says Nan Fung Sells Shares to Anbang Insurance Group

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Sino-Ocean Land Holdings Ltd. said Anbang Insurance Group Co. purchased about a fifth of the Chinese developer’s shares from members of Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd. for HK$7.8 billion ($1 billion).

Members of closely held Nan Fung, based in Hong Kong, sold the shares at HK$5.05 [US$0.651] each, reducing their holdings in Sino- Ocean Land to about 0.8 percent, the company said in a filing to Hong Kong’s stock exchange Monday. Anbang bought the 20.5 percent stake with its subsidiary Anbang Property & Casualty Insurance Co. in a deal completed Monday, Sino-Ocean Land said.

The builder had earlier in the day jumped as much as 16 percent in Hong Kong, the most since October 2011. The stock closed 9 percent higher at HK$5.11 [US$0.66], a four-month high. Before the transaction, Vivien Chen — daughter of Nan Fung’s founder, Chen Din Hwa — had held a 21.3 percent of Sino-Ocean partly through Nan Fung, according to another filing on Monday.

China Life Insurance Co. was Sino-Ocean Land’s biggest shareholder with a 29 percent stake as of the end of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.