What’s new: Guolian Group, the biggest shareholder of Guolian Securities, won a protracted bidding war to buy 30.3% of Minsheng Securities for 9.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), beating rivals Soochow Securities Co. Ltd. and Zheshang Securities Co. Ltd.
The final price was 55% higher than the asking price of 5.9 billion yuan, according to information disclosed by the judicial auction platform of e-commerce giant JD.Com.
Guolian Group, backed by the local government of Wuxi, closed the deal to acquire 3.47 billion shares of Shanghai-based Minsheng from debt-ridden Oceanwide Holdings after 162 rounds of bidding.
Background: The shares of Minsheng were auctioned after its largest shareholder Oceanwide, a Beijing-based financial and real estate group that has been mired in debt, defaulted on a bridge loan from Shandong Hi-Speed Group Corp, a state-owned highway operator.
Oceanwide owns 3.55 billion shares of Minsheng, or 31.03%. After the auction, its holdings will decrease to 0.25%.
Guolian Group owns about 46% of Guolian Securities as its largest shareholder.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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