China Oceanwide Sticks With Genworth Deal

News March 28, 2018 at 01:11 AM
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Thomas McInerney,, president and chief executive officer of Genworth Financial Inc., listens to a question during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York, U.S., on Friday, June 27, 2014. Thomas McInerney (Photo: Victor J. Blue/BB)

Genworth Financial Inc. today announced two bits of good news.

Regulators in Australia have blessed Genworth's efforts to sell itself to China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co. Ltd., and China Oceanwide has agreed to extend the companies' merger agreement until July 1.

China Oceanwide, a Beijing-based real estate and financial services company, announced plans to acquire Genworth in October 2016.

Originally, the companies hoped to complete the deal by mid-2017. Since then, the companies have agreed to four deal agreement extensions.

The current extension, which was the third, was set to end April 1.

Genworth has been known for selling life insurance, annuities and long-term care insurance in the United States, and mortgage insurance in the United States, Canada and Australia.

China also has financial services operations in many countries.

Regulators in North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia have approved the deal.

State insurance regulators in Delaware and New York state are still considering the deal.

Regulators at a federal agency, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), are also reviewing the deal.

CFIUS is supposed to help the federal government analyze and block deals that might hurt the security of the United States. CFIUS has expressed concerns about the policyholder information Genworth holds. Genworth has been trying to ease those concerns by arranging for an outside company to take charge of the data.

Genworth filed a copy of the fourth deal period waiver agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In the agreement, Genworth and China Oceanwide state that they can break up if CFIUS opposes the deal, or CFIUS or another regulator asks for changes that are unacceptable to either company, or to both companies.

Genworth notes that it and China Oceanwide are still seeking approval for the deal from regulators in China and other international jurisdictions as well as from U.S. regulators.

Tom McInerney, Genworth's president, said in a statement that the companies have refiled their CFIUS deal notice.

Lu , chairman of China Oceanwide, said his company is pleased that Australia has approved the deal.

China Oceanwide is "are committed to diligently working with Genworth to obtain the remaining regulatory approvals and satisfy other conditions necessary to close the transaction," Lu said.

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