Sunshine Insurance, a leading private insurance group in China, issued H shares for the first time in an HKEX IPO, raising HKD6.705 billion (USD861.4 million) and becoming the fourth largest listing on the city’s bourse in 2022.
The main business streams at Sunshine include life insurance, health insurance, property and casualty insurance and property management services. The property and casualty insurance business was particularly prominent, in 2020, ranking Sunshine in this sector seventh among all PRC property insurance companies with a market share of 2.7%.
Clifford Chance advised Sunshine Insurance on Hong Kong and US law, Commerce & Finance Law Offices provided PRC legal advice.
China co-managing partner Tim Wang led the Clifford Chance team with partners Liu Fang and Xiang Tianning.
Linklaters acted as Hong Kong and US counsel, while King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) acted as PRC advisers to joint sponsors Huatai Financial Holdings, CICC, UBS Securities and CCB International Capital.
Corporate partner Christopher Yip and capital markets partner Lipton Li led the Linklaters team, while the KWM team was led by partners Su Zheng and Li Yuanyuan.
According to the prospectus, Sunshine Insurance has faced 238 administrative penalties by the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the People’s Bank of China, the State Taxation Administration and other regulatory authorities in the past four years, with fines totalling RMB44.3 million.
The violations include financial and business data errors or failure to comply with accounting policies, wrong submission of business operation data, failure to use approved or filed insurance clauses and premium rates as required, and an unauthorised change of business premises.
