Really regret that I did not hold on to my puts on Ping An
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18-07-2008 08:43:50
Ping An: No timeframe on share sale; Fortis undervaluedSHANGHAI, July 18 (Reuters) - Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd <2318.HK> <601318.SS> has
not set a timeframe for its proposed new share issuances either in Shanghai or Hong Kong, chairman Ma Mingzhe told shareholders, state media reported on Friday.
In separate comments at the company's shareholder meeting on Thursday, General Manager Zhang Zixin sought to reassure investors the investment in Dutch-Belgian financial services firm Fortis had long-term value despite
losses of more than 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) in the stake.Ping An holds a roughly 5 percent stake in Fortis group and it also owns half of Fortis' investment management business.
Zhang said he believed the share price of Fortis had been undervalued, according to media reports.
Zhang said Ping An would continue to invest in overseas markets but may focus more on non-financial sectors.
"In the future, Ping An will explore more investment opportunities abroad
in infrastructure and commercial property projects," the official Shanghai Securities News quoted Zhang as saying.
"In the meantime, (Ping An) will make more inputs in the asset management business to improve its global product lines," he said.
Sources told Reuters in June that Ping An had agreed to set up a fund management joint venture with Singapore's United Overseas Bank to offer mutual fund products to Chinese financial consumers. (For details: [ID:nSHA326969]) NO TIMEFRAME In January, Ping An announced it had made a surprise move to issue new shares, aiming to raise more than 100 billion yuan, which in part contributed to sharp declines of domestic stock markets as investors were deeply concerned about market liquidity.
Chinese securities regulator later approved Ping An's fund-raising plan amid growing anger from domestic investors, including some economists and scholars, who had said Ping An's plans for a huge equity issue had helped to send stock markets sharply lower.
On Thursday, Zhang told investors at the meeting that Ping An had not yet settled any timeframe for fund-raisings either via its local currency yuan-denominated A-shares or H shares.
Zhang also noted that the company "cannot control its share price movement, which reflects the relationship of supply and demand on the market".
Ping An's A-share price by Thursday's close had fallen to about one fourth of its peak, while the Shanghai benchmark index <.SSEC> had fallen about 50 percent from its peak.
Ma, also a co-founder of Ping An, reaffirmed that Chinese tax authorities had not yet discovered any problems in its investigation of Ping An's tax filings.
"This tax investigation is just a routine tax check and it is expected to be completed within this year," said Ma.
"So far, everything is normal," he added.
Ma also denied market rumors that Ping An had provided gifts of shares to senior government leaders."We feel extremely frustrated about such rumors, and this is totally unfair to Ping An as we didn't gift any relatives of government leaders even one cent share of Ping An," Ma said.
Some shareholders at the meeting also questioned whether the company could afford Ma's salary, after he was ranked by Forbes China magazine in a recent survey as
"China's most expensive boss" for his annual income exceeding 60 million yuan."The most important thing is that my performance and contribution to Ping An are worth my salary," Ma said.
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"