CP Group wins approval for lucrative Ping An stake

China’s insurance regulator has approved the sale of HSBC’s remaining $7.43 billion stake in Ping An Insurance to Charoen Pokphand CP, a Thai conglomerate controlled by Dhanin Chearavanont, Thailand’s richest man.

The approval means that he is getting even richer. Having agreed to pay a total of $9.39 billion for a 15.57% stake, the value of CP’s holding is already worth $1.9 billion more than when the deal was struck on December 5, thanks to a 17% rise in the price of Ping An’s Hong Kong-traded shares.

CP is paying HK$59 a share, which at the time of the agreement was just HK...