China's Fosun Pursues U.S. IPO of Insurance Unit

An arm of Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group is seeking approval for a U.S. initial public offering of Ironshore Inc., the U.S. insurer it acquired last year.

Fosun International Ltd. said Thursday it had submitted an application with the Hong Kong stock exchange seeking approval for a spinoff and separate listing of the insurance company on either the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.

Shanghai-based Fosun said it would make further announcements related to the planned IPO when appropriate or required under the listing rules.

The potential size of the IPO wasn't disclosed. Fosun couldn't be reached for comment.

Fosun agreed to buy the 80% of Ironshore it didn't already own in May 2015 for $1.84 billion. The deal was part of Fosun's effort to make insurance a greater share of its core operations.

The company bought an initial 20% stake in Ironshore for about $463.8 million in 2014.

Fosun, which is run by chairman and co-founder Guo Guangchang, has interests in everything from mining to real estate and is one of China's biggest conglomerates by assets.

The company has made cutting debt and consolidation of its recent acquisitions a priority this year. Fosun, whose marquee deals include buying resort operator Club Mé diterrané e SA and a stake in avant-garde circus troupe Cirque du Soleil, has been scaling back its international deal making in the past six months.

Last month, S&P Global Ratings lowered the outlook for its rating of Fosun International's credit to negative from stable, citing concern about the Chinese conglomerate's debt remaining high after recent acquisitions.

Write to Alec Macfarlane at [e-mail] and Wei Gu at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 23, 2016 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.