Shanghai developer eyes selling insurance products to Chinese homebuyers with Hong Kong’s Dah Sing Life bid

Shanghai-based real estate firm Future Land Development is said to be making a US$1 billion bid for Dah Sing Life Assurance, which would help it sell Hong Kong insurance products to homebuyers in China.

“We see many of our customers coming to Hong Kong to buy insurance as there are limited investment options for them at home,” Kenny Chan, vice-president and company secretary of Future Land Development, told South China Morning Post.

“More and more mainland Chinese consumers are looking to invest overseas, especially the high-end ones. We want to follow this trend.”

Chan, however, refused to comment on reports that the company is biding for Dah Sing Life.

The estimated US$1 billion second-round bidding for the insurance operation of Hong Kong’s Dah Sing Financial Holdings has attracted several potential buyers, including another mainland Chinese property developer, Country Garden.

Country Garden’s management clarified last week in Singapore that the investment will be conducted through chairman Yang Guoqiang’s family office rather than through the listed entity. The developer said its 500,000 customers would be the potential buyers of the insurance products.

Chan also said Future Land would sell insurance products to Chinese clients if the company acquires the insurance asset, and that the strong cash flow of the insurance sector could benefit the company’s overseas expansion. “There would be synergy.”