Qatar Investment Authority may lend its weight to a US$2.5 billion (Dh9.18bn) takeover of the Taiwanese arm of American International Group (AIG) as part of a former diplomat’s bid to “save” the insurance unit from Chinese ownership.
Wang Shih-jung, a former trade envoy to Switzerland, said he had lined up investors who would bid to take over Nan Shan, AIG’s Taiwanese arm, if a $2.2bn bid from a Chinese-based consortium was blocked by Taiwan’s regulator.
The offer by the battery maker China Strategic and the Hong Kong investment fund Primus has been on hold since October due to fears about the buyers connections with Beijing. “Our stepping out is the only way for AIG to fix this difficult problem, to help the Taiwan government resolve this tough issue and to prevent the two Hong Kong vultures from taking over Nan Shan,” Mr Wang told Reuters.
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) would provide $1.25bn, the largest amount of funding for the bid, with $900 million from Japanese investors and $350m from Taiwanese banks.
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