Prudential's US$35.5 billion acquisition of Asian rival AIA Group is on a knife-edge following claims that a significant minority of the British insurer's shareholders will vote against the deal.
The growing disquiet makes a Hong Kong initial public offering of AIA, which before its engagement to Prudential had aimed to raise US$20 billion listing here, more likely.
Robin Geffen, a British fund manager who has set up a pressure group aiming to block the deal, said he has the support of a fifth of Prudential's investors. For the buyout to go ahead, Prudential needs 75 per cent of shareholders to back a US$21 billion rights offer to fund the purchase at its June 7 shareholder meeting.
'We have 20 per cent [shareholder] support and rising,' Geffen, the founder of London-based Neptune Investment Management, said. Neptune owns 0.2 per cent of Prudential.
Geffen would not disclose who his backers are or which investors had refused to join his group.
But Capital Group, the US fund house that owns 13 per cent of Prudential and is reportedly against the buyout, is not among Neptune's band of rebels, a source familiar with the situation confirmed.