Chinese government takes over troubled insurance giant Anbang

The Chinese government on Friday seized control of Anbang Insurance Group, one of the country’s most politically connected companies and a firm that recently held talks with a company owned by the family of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Anbang had violated laws and regulations which “may seriously endanger the solvency of the company”, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said in a statement announcing the seizure, without giving details.

The CIRC also said Anbang’s chairman and key shareholder, Wu Xiaohui, had been prosecuted for economic crimes. Wu was arrested in June as troubles mounted for one of China’s most aggressive buyers of overseas assets.

Anbang owns New York’s landmark Waldorf Astoria hotel. Last year it ended talks to invest $400m in Kushner Companies’ troubled 666 Fifth Avenue tower block in a deal that had raised ethics concerns with US lawmakers.

Democratic lawmakers asked whether Kushner had been involved in the talks. “This deal, if executed, would appear to present a clear conflict of interest,” they wrote to Stefan Passantino, the White House deputy counsel.

Shanghai prosecutors office said in a statement on Friday that Wu had recently been charged with fundraising fraud and abuse of his position, and that his case had been forwarded to the city’s intermediate court for prosecution.

During the government takeover of Anbang Group, which will last for one year starting from Friday, the company will be managed by a group of officials from the CIRC, the central bank and other key financial regulators and government bodies.

The group will seek to undertake an equity restructuring of the insurance giant, even as it keeps Anbang operating as usual, protecting the rights and interests of its consumers and stakeholders, the CIRC said.

The takeover of Anbang, which claims 1.97trn yuan ($310.85bn) in assets and ranks 139 on the Global Fortune 500 list, is a defining blow to the conglomerate.

The unprecedented seizure of a major non-state company also underscores how far the ruling communist party will go in its growing campaign to lower financial risks, sending a signal to risk-taking private enterprises.

Anbang Insurance has significant stakes in a slew of major Chinese companies, such as banks and property developers.

While it was not immediately clear what triggered the move, three insurance industry insiders said they were not surprised by the CIRC’s decision since Anbang had been in the crosshairs of the government. They said they believed it had more to do with Anbang’s behaviour than systemic financial risks.

A regulatory source with knowledge of the matter said the government had been effectively running the company since Wu was detained and the timing of the official takeover was linked to the investigation into Wu, which was nearly complete.

But a Beijing-based lawyer who works with the CIRC and other regulators said senior officials at the insurance regulator had been watching Anbang closely since last year as its liabilities from the sale of shadow banking products grew, raising questions about the company’s solvency.

“The group has become too big to fail in some sense,” said the lawyer, who declined to be identified by name.

The CIRC said on Friday that it had sent a working group to Anbang in June 2017 and that at present the company’s operations are “generally stable”.

“This appears to be an unprecedented takeover – a Chinese-style hostile takeover,” said Scott Kennedy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“The Chinese government doesn’t want to have a company default on foreign debt and it also wants to teach a lesson to other Chinese business people that the party is in charge.”

Reuters contributed to this story