Bank of East Asia to launch sale of insurance business in strategy overhaul

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia Ltd (BEA) said on Wednesday it had decided to initiate a sale of its insurance business following the completion of a review of its portfolios and assets.

The bank said in March it had agreed to carry out a review of its businesses, pausing four-year-old legal proceedings brought by activist investor Elliott Management demanding change at the lender.

BEA, which hired Goldman Sachs to assist with the business review, said it would seek to enter into a long-term exclusive distribution agreement with the buyer of BEA Life. The agreement would be a new source of revenue for the bank, it said.

BEA Life is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the bank in Hong Kong, and it reported gross written premiums of HK$4.8 billion ($620 million) in 2019, the lender said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Devika Syamnath)