Tycoon Richard Li's FWD Hires Ex-Deutsche Bank Dealmaker for M&A
Tycoon Richard Li's FWD Hires Ex-Deutsche Bank Dealmaker for M&A
(Bloomberg) -- FWD Group, the insurer backed by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, has hired former Deutsche Bank AG dealmaker Tan Boon-Kee as senior adviser for mergers and acquisitions.
Tan, who will be based in Singapore, started in her new role at the acquisitive Asian insurer last week, a representative for FWD said in response to Bloomberg queries. Tan was Asia Pacific head of Deutsche Bank’s financial institutions group.
The group agreed in October to buy control of Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Indonesian life insurance arm. In 2017, it bought American International Group Inc.’s Japanese life unit, after earlier making acquisitions in Singapore and Vietnam.
Backed by Swiss Re AG, FWD also has held preliminary discussions with investment banks about a possible IPO, people familiar with the matter said in June.
FWD, which manages more than $28 billion of assets, had over 3 million customers spread across eight Asian markets, according to its website. Li, the son of Hong Kong’s richest man, formed the company after spending $2.1 billion to buy ING Groep NV’s insurance and pension units in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand in 2013.
Tan stepped down from her role at Deutsche Bank in August, people familiar with the matter said earlier. She was earlier interviewed by Singapore authorities on her role in the multi-billion 1MDB scandal, the troubled Malaysian state fund where $4.5 billion was allegedly siphoned off. Tan was not accused of any wrongdoing, the people said at the time.
To contact the reporters on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at kchan14@bloomberg.net;Manuel Baigorri in Hong Kong at mbaigorri@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Ben Scent, Timothy Sifert
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