Anbang to sell entire $2.4 billion Japanese property portfolio, Blackstone seen bidding: sources

By Reuters On Aug 14, 2019

FILE PHOTO: People enter the office of Anbang Insurance Group in Beijing, China, February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

TOKYO (Reuters) – China’s troubled Anbang Insurance Group has started a sale of its entire $2.4 billion Japanese property portfolio and previous owner Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Group is bidding, two people said, after the insurer failed to sell some of the assets last year.

Beijing has been speeding up asset disposals at the government-controlled insurance group, previously one of the most aggressive Chinese buyers of foreign assets. Anbang is aiming to sell the entire residential portfolio it bought from the U.S. private equity firm, said the people, declining to be identified because the deal is not public.

The price for the portfolio has not been set and the process is still at an early stage, they said. Anbang paid Blackstone around 260 billion yen ($2.4 billion) for the assets in 2017, in what was Japan’s biggest property deal since the global financial crisis.

Representatives for Anbang and Blackstone declined to comment.