Prudential's journey east has begun in earnest. The UK-listed financial services group's $21bn rights issue to part fund its purchase of AIA has been priced to be taken up by Asian investors. Shareholders concerned by the ambitious $35.5bn acquisition could seize on the deeply discounted 104p issue to sell some or all of their rights. Demand is unlikely to be a problem: until Prudential's offer, Asian investors were preparing to buy AIA shares directly via an initial public offering. Now they can place a bigger bet on developing Asia's financial services markets. Nor need Prudential fear investor apathy: its cash call, launched into markets gyrating to the dance of Greek contagion, is fully underwritten by Credit Suisse, HSBC and JPMorgan Cazenove. They can always offload shares to the same investors.
保誠集團(Prudential)的東進之旅正式啟動。這家英國上市的金融服務集團，為其規模為210億美元的配股發行制定了亞洲投資者接受的價格——此次配股將為收購友邦保險(AIA)提供部分融資。對保誠雄心勃勃的355億美元收購計劃心懷憂慮的股東，可能利用大幅折讓的104便士配股價格，出售其部分或全部持股。需求不太可能成為問題：在保誠出價收購之前，亞洲投資者就準備直接購買友邦首次公開發行(IPO)的股份。如今，他們能夠在發展中亞洲的金融服務市場上進行更大的押注。保誠也不用擔心投資者缺乏興趣：它在市場因希臘危機蔓延而上下波動之際進行的籌資活動，完全由瑞信(Credit Suisse)、匯豐(HSBC)和摩根大通嘉誠(JPMorgan Cazenove)承銷。這些機構總是能夠將股份銷售給相同的投資者。