Carlyle Cuts Stake in China Pacific Insurance Group

U.S. private equity fund Carlyle Group has sold 18 million shares in China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. Ltd (CPIC), taking its holding below 5 percent, CPIC said in a statement.

Based on Thursday’s closing price, Carlyle raised about HK$438 million ($57 million) from the latest selldown, taking total proceeds from four sales since December 2010 to about $3.6 billion

Carlyle’s stake sale in CPIC — China’s third-biggest insurer — puts the U.S. buyout fund on course for its biggest-ever cash exit, should it completely sell out of the company. Carlyle invested about $800 million in CPIC between 2005 and 2007 for a 17 percent stake, sources previously told Reuters.

In the first nine months of 2011, Carlyle distributed more than $15 billion to its fund investors, a record performance, and the returns reaped from CPIC means that Asia made a substantial contribution to last year’s returns to investors.

China Pacific said late on Thursday that Carlyle sold 18 million shares of the company, cutting its stake to 4.94 percent from 5.15 percent. China Pacific’s Hong Kong-listed shares were up 2.3 percent at HK$24.90 on Friday morning, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index was up 0.2 percent.