Fortis SA/NV is unlikely to complete a deal to sell half of its asset management company to Ping An Insurance Co., confirmed Fortis spokeswoman Lilian Tackaert.
“In order to provide clarity to the market … Fortis announces that it expects not to be able to complete the asset management partnership with Ping An,” according to a company statement.
Announced in March, the €2.15 billion ($3 billion) deal had been approved by Ping An shareholders and was awaiting regulatory approval. But on Monday, the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg agreed to inject €11.2 billion into Fortis when shares plummeted about 35% the previous week because of capitalization concerns. The bailout also led to questions about the deal with Ping An itself, analysts said.
“Due to the big change in the environment of the deal, there is the possibility that we cannot complete the deal,” Ping An spokesman Richard Sheng Ruisheng wrote in an e-mail.
Separately, Fortis announced it may consider selling multiasset manager Artemis Asset Management, which has about £15 billion ($26 billion) in assets under management. As part of the acquisition of ABN AMRO Asset Management, a 67.1% stake in Artemis had been transferred to Fortis earlier this year. On Tuesday, Fortis announced it has acquired the remainder of Artemis as part of a previous contractual agreement in the ABN AMRO deal, confirmed Nick Wells, product and communications director at Artemis.
“It is Fortis’ ambition to sell Artemis, so we’ve been in negotiations with them and other parties,” Mr. Wells said. “The preferred option is to have a large shareholder sitting alongside (Artemis) management in order to maintain our independence with share participation.”
