Heungkuk Life Insurance: "Selection of Aegis Asset Management's Preferred Bidder Is a Joint Work of Chinese Private Equity Fund and Foreign Lead Managers"

Heungkuk Life Insurance Issues Statement on December 9, Criticizes Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs
"Promised Not to Conduct a 'Progressive Deal,' Then Deceived Us"
"Will Pursue Legal Action"

Heungkuk Life Insurance expressed regret over Hillhouse Investment, a Chinese private equity fund, being selected as the preferred bidder for Aegis Asset Management.

On December 9, Heungkuk Life Insurance issued a statement saying, "Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the lead managers for the sale of Aegis Asset Management, have selected Hillhouse Investment as the preferred bidder," adding, "We express strong regret over the decision made by the lead managers."

Heungkuk Life Insurance Headquarters. Heungkuk Life Insurance

This is interpreted as a backlash against Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs selecting Hillhouse as the preferred bidder for Aegis Asset Management, the largest real estate asset management company in Korea, the previous day. Hillhouse raised its acquisition price to between the mid-900 billion won range and approximately 1.1 trillion won, outbidding Hanwha Life Insurance and Heungkuk Life Insurance, who had been strong contenders. The decisive factor was that this bid was conducted as a "progressive deal" (auction-style bidding).

A representative from Heungkuk Life Insurance stated, "The sale process for Aegis Asset Management was neither fair nor transparent," and explained, "Initially, the shareholder representative and the lead managers publicly declared that they would not conduct a progressive deal ahead of the main bid." The representative continued, "Trusting this, Heungkuk Life Insurance demonstrated its genuine intent to acquire Aegis Asset Management by submitting the highest bid at the main auction on November 11," and added, "However, after the main bid, the lead managers repeatedly delayed the announcement of the preferred bidder and then proposed a progressive deal to Hillhouse, asking them to raise their desired acquisition price above the highest bid from the main auction."

Heungkuk Life Insurance further criticized, "In the end, the lead managers' initial promise not to conduct a progressive deal turned out to be nothing more than a tactic to raise the highest bid in the main auction," and added, "We cannot help but suspect that the bid amount submitted by Heungkuk Life Insurance may have been leaked to Hillhouse when the progressive deal was proposed."

Heungkuk Life Insurance also stated, "The selection of Hillhouse as the preferred bidder is a joint scheme orchestrated by a Chinese private equity fund targeting Korea's real estate investment platform and foreign lead managers blinded by large performance fees," adding, "This incident goes beyond the limits of the seller's discretion and undermines the trust and order of our capital market."

The company concluded, "Heungkuk Life Insurance will not overlook the deception and illegality shown by the shareholder representative and the lead managers during this bidding process," and added, "We will make every effort, including legal action, to correct the wrongdoing in this bid."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.