Carlyle sells half its stake in CPIC, raising $723 million

Carlyle Group has sold just over half of its remaining stake in China Pacific Insurance Group Co CPIC through a block trade, raising HK$5.61 billion $723 million.

The timing of the deal took the market by surprise. It launched at 7pm on Friday, at a time when the stock was trading below the IPO price and following a profit warning by CPIC a week earlier. But investors liked the fact that the discount was wider than on any of Carlyle’s previous three sell-downs in the Chinese insurer and, when the order books closed after about four-and-a-half hours, there was enough interest to cover the deal.

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