Anbang gets USD9.7 bn capital injection

Anbang Insurance Group Co. has announced that it will receive a USD9.7 billion capital injection from an industry-rescue fund to help stabilise its operations and keep it solvent while it tries to find new private investors.

The large capital infusion comes a month and a half after China’s insurance regulator said it had formally seized control of Anbang, the country’s third-largest insurer by assets. Anbang in recent years had gone on an overseas acquisition spree, spending billions on real estate and luxury hotels, including the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Recently Anbang’s former chairman, Wu Xiaohui, went on trial in a Shanghai court on charges of fraud and embezzlement.

The fresh capital will come from China Insurance Security Fund Co., an industry fund designed to backstop the country’s insurance companies. The insurance regulator approved a CNY60.8 billion capital injection for Anbang, the company said in a statement.