Ping An’s acquisition of Founder Group: Opportunistic buy or forced rescue?

Over the past few months, Ping An’s (HKEX:2318) share price has tumbled by almost -20%, wiping out most of the gains it has accumulated over the past year. This happened shortly after Ping An announced that it will be acquiring a majority stake in the newly-established Founder Group, a distressed company that has entered into a court-led debt restructuring program since early 2020. Is this an opportunistic acquisition by Ping An? Let’s find out.

  • |
  • Published on 17 Jun 2021

Ping An’s acquisition of Founder Group: Opportunistic buy or forced rescue?  | Open a FREE FSMOne account and manage all your investments conveniently in ONE place
Photo by Issy on Unsplash

Ping An Insurance (HKEX:2318) will be acquiring a majority stake in the newly-established Founder Group, a state-owned conglomerate that was founded by the prestigious Peking University.

Unfortunately, the market has reacted negatively to this piece of news, with Ping An’s share price tumbling by almost -20%, wiping out most of the gains it has accumulated over the past year.

We believe the correction is largely sentiment-driven. In fact, we see the deal as an opportunistic acquisition led by Ping An Insurance, given the synergies and benefits it can gain from this deal. 

This acquisition will allow Ping An to grow its securities business to compete against the larger foreign players as China opens up its financial market. This acquisition can also provide Ping An with a shortcut to China's fast-growing healthcare industry.

Our stance on Ping An remains unchanged and using the sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) valuation methodology, we arrived at our 2023E target price of HKD 130 (Table 1). This translates to a whopping upside potential of more than 60%! 

Since its March lows, the share price of Ping An Insurance has rebounded strongly, in line with the broader market recovery. However, over the past few months, Ping An’s share price has tumbled by almost -20%, wiping out most of the gains it has accumulated over the past year (Chart 1). 

This happened shortly after Ping An announced that it will be acquiring a majority stake in the newly-established Founder Group, a state-owned conglomerate that was founded by the prestigious Peking University. 

Chart 1: Recent correction in Ping An Insurance share price 


What’s going on? 


According to Bloomberg, Founder Group defaulted on USD 3 billion of dollar bonds and RMB 34.5 billion of onshore notes, and after more than a year, it was announced that Founder Group will undergo a debt restructuring plan, with Ping An Life Insurance arm investing 37.1 – 51.8 billion yuan for a 51.1-70.0% equity stake in the New Founder Group. 

Unfortunately, the market has reacted negatively to this piece of news despite its healthy 1Q21 results. We believe this correction is largely driven by negative investor sentiment towards the deal, due to a couple of reasons: 

  1. Investors are concerned that they might be under government pressure to rescue PKU Founder; 
  2. Investors are worried that Ping An may have to bail out other companies in the future as tasked by the authorities;
  3. Investors are questioning how much Ping An can benefit from this deal.

Why is Ping An Insurance buying over Founder Group?


While there is no confirmation that Ping An was tasked by the government to save Founder Group, we believe that this acquisition may have been an opportunistic acquisition led by Ping An. The assets of bankrupt companies are typically sold at depressed prices. In the case of Founder Group, not only are its assets sold at depressed prices, but they are also deemed to be synergistic with Ping An’s existing businesses.

Here is an overview of the assets under the Founder Group: 

Table 1: Overview of assets under Founder Group
Sector Core assets Description
Finance Founder Securities, PKU Founder Life Businesses covering securities, futures, funds, insurance and other fields
Medical & Healthcare PKU Healthcare Group, PKU Healthcare IT Hospitals, pharmaceutical enterprise and healthcare information technology
Technology Founder Technology Business covering printed circuit boards (PCB)
Education China Hi-Tech, PKU Founder Technology College Education provider
Real Estate PKU Resources A part of their business is involved in real estate development and operation of commercial properties
Source: Ping An Insurance, iFAST compilations

For instance, this acquisition can provide Ping An with a shortcut to China's fast-growing healthcare industry. Ping An can gain immediate access to Founder Group’s hospital network, as well as its medical technology, all of which will be able to help Ping An further enhance the online-offline healthcare ecosystem (doctors, offline hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies) it is building through its subsidiaries such as Ping An Good Doctor (HKEX:1833) and Ping An HealthKonnect. 

With a stronger healthcare ecosystem and a better understanding of the healthcare industry, Ping An is also able to create synergies with its core insurance business through better underwriting capabilities. This will help Ping An to acquire new customers, enhance customer stickiness, and increase the average lifetime value per customer.

Meanwhile, this acquisition can also build up Ping An’s securities business, allowing it to fight against the larger foreign players as China opens up its financial market. In our previous article, we have shared that the opening up of China’s financial market will result in intensifying competition within the securities space as bigger foreign players like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are moving in to take up more market share. 


If Ping An were to combine Founder Group’s existing securities business with its own, the new consolidated entity will have total assets of RMB 245 billion, making it one of China’s top ten players in the securities business, according to data compiled by the Securities Association of China and Bloomberg. This move will put Ping An in a better place to compete against the larger foreign players, giving them a slice of the fast-growing wealth management market in China. 

An opportunistic acquisition led by Ping An Insurance 


Overall, we believe that this is an opportunistic acquisition led by Ping An Insurance (HKEX:2318), given the synergies and benefits it can gain from this deal. At this point, it remains difficult to quantify the potential impact given limited details provided on the New Founder Group. However, for investors who are concerned over the implications on Ping An’s balance sheet, they will be assured to know that this deal will only have a marginal impact on Ping An’s solvency capital. 

Ping An Life remains very well-capitalised as of end-2020, with its comprehensive solvency ratio standing at 240%, which is way above the minimum ratio of 100%. This also means that Ping An Life has about RMB 1.8 trillion worth of capital, dwarfing the RMB 51.8 billion it intends to inject into the New Founder Group.

Finally, it is also worth noting that Ping An has a good track record of delivering returns to investors. In fact, it has delivered an annualised total shareholder return of more than 10% over the last decade. 

Our stance on Ping An Insurance remains unchanged and using the sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) valuation methodology, we arrived at our 2023E target price of HKD 130 (Table 2). This translates to a whopping upside potential of more than 60%! 

Table 2: Ping An Insurance remains attractive
Business segment Shareholding Valuation Valuation methodology Multiple Weighted valuation
Life & Health 99.5% 400,239 P/B 3.0 1,200,717
P&C 99.5% 140,710 P/B 2.0 278,068
Banking 58.0% 451,381 Market cap 1.0 261,621
Fintech & Health-tech Disclosed 150,897 Disclosed Valuation - 150,897
Securities 97% 32,463 Peers P/B 2.0 64,926
Trust 100% 4,000 Peers P/E 15.0 60,000
Others 100% 45,380 Book value 1.0 45,380
Total 2,061,609
# of shares 18,280
End 2023 target price (RMB) 112.8
End 2023 target price (HKD) 130.1
Current share price (HKD) 79.3
Upside potential 64.2%
Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P., Ping An annual reports, iFAST estimations
Data as of 16 June 2021
We continue to favour Ping An Insurance (HKEX:2318) for its ecosystem business model and we believe it will remain a fast-growing stock in the coming years. Investors who are currently holding on to Ping An Insurance shares need not sweat over this new deal, while those who wish to take part in Ping An’s growth story can consider this correction as a good opportunity to enter the market. 

Chart 2: Ping An Insurance share price vs. EPS (HKD)
 

Declaration:

For specific disclosure, at the time of publication of this report, IFPL (via its connected and associated entities) hold a NIL position in the abovementioned securities. The analyst who produced this report has a position in Ping An Insurance.

All materials and contents found in this site are strictly for general circulation and informational purposes only and should not be considered as an offer, or solicitation, to deal in any of the funds or products found/identified in this site. While iFAST Financial Pte Ltd ("IFPL") has tried to provide accurate and timely information, there may be inadvertent delays, omissions, technical or factual inaccuracies and typographical errors. Any opinion or estimate contained in this report is made on a general basis and neither IFPL nor any of its servants or agents have given any consideration to nor have they or any of them made any investigation of the investment objective, financial situation or particular need of any user or reader, any specific person or group of persons. You should consider carefully if the products you are going to purchase are suitable for your investment objective, investment experience, risk tolerance and other personal circumstances. If you are uncertain about the suitability of the investment product, please seek advice from a financial adviser, before making a decision to purchase the investment product. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. The value of the investment products and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. In respect of any matters arising from, or in connection with the said research analyses or research reports, recipients of the report are to contact IFPL at 10 Collyer Quay, #26-01 Ocean Financial Centre Building, Singapore 049315, or by telephone at +65 6557 2853. Where the report contains research analyses or research reports from a foreign research house and if the recipient of such research analyses or research reports is not an accredited investor, expert investor, institutional investor or an ex-accredited investor, IFPL accepts legal responsibility for the contents of such analyses or reports to such persons only to the extent as required by law. Please note that only certain security(ies) herein are available to all investors, while the rest are only available for certain persons to invest in, such as Accredited Investors (as defined in the Securities and Futures Act) or one who invests at least S$200,000 (or its equivalent currency) per transaction. To qualify as an Accredited Investor, one needs to submit a declaration form and certain relevant supporting documents, according to iFAST’s prevailing policies and procedures.

Please read our full disclaimers on the website at ( https://secure.fundsupermart.com/fsmone/policies/328125/investment-account-terms-&-conditions).

iFAST Financial Pte Ltd (IFPL) (registered address: 10 Collyer Quay #26-01 Ocean Financial Centre Singapore 049315, Telephone: 6557 2000) holds the Financial Advisers Licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore ('MAS') to conduct regulated activities of advising on securities, marketing of collective investment schemes and arranging of any contract of insurance in respect of life policies, other than a contract of reinsurance and the Capital Markets Services Licence issued by the MAS to conduct regulated activities of dealing in securities and providing custodial services for securities. While IFPL has made every effort to ensure the independence of the report's contents, IFPL's nature of business is such that IFPL and its connected and associated entities together with their respective directors, officers and staff may be involved in providing dealing or investment-related services in the abovementioned securities, and have taken or may take positions in the securities mentioned in this report, and may also act as the principal for any buy or sell trades.

Ways to Invest with FSM Global
Why FSM Global
Don't have an account with us?
Open an account here
Need Financial Advice?
Make an appointment

We use cookies If you close this message or continue to use this site, you will consent to the use of Cookies, unless you choose to disable them. Click on our Privacy Policy to understand more.