Genworth-China Oceanwide look to allay concerns of US security panel

Genworth Financial and China Oceanwide Holdings Group have said they are still hopeful a deal can be achieved – despite well over a year having passed since the companies first unveiled a  deal that would see the Chinese company buy Genworth for $2.7 billion.

The deal has been delayed by concerns raised by the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which assesses deals to ensure they do not harm national security. The companies are now working on an amended proposal they hope will secure approval. They have until a new deadline of April 1, 2018.

In a statement, the companies said: “Genworth and China Oceanwide remain committed to the transaction and have been working cooperatively with CFIUS since they first filed their original voluntary notice in January 2017. In October, the two parties withdrew their joint voluntary notice with the intent to refile the transaction with an additional mitigation approach to further protect the personal data of Genworth policyholders.”

Tom McInerney, president and CEO of Genworth Financial, added: “In the interim, we have been working with a leading US third party data administrator to implement a mitigation approach that further protects our US customers' personal private data.

“We believe further protecting the personal information of our US customers makes our overall mitigation plan more robust than our previous CFIUS filings and expect to file our new mitigation plan in the near term, as soon as the key terms of the additional mitigation approach are finalized.

“We are encouraged by the progress we are making, which is one of the reasons we extended the merger agreement to April 1, 2018. We continue to work hard with Oceanwide and with our regulators to successfully complete the transaction as soon as possible because we firmly believe this transaction will deliver the best possible outcome for all of our stakeholders."

LU Zhiqiang, chairman of Oceanwide, added: "We remain committed to our transaction with Genworth and look forward to building Genworth's businesses in the U.S. while at the same time bringing Genworth's expertise in long term care and mortgage insurance to China."

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