Mortgage insurer Genworth Financial and China Oceanwide Holdings Group have made further progress towards their long-delayed merger agreement after receiving confirmation of the acceptance of filing from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in China.
With NDRC’s re-approval, Oceanwide will now move forward with the few remaining regulatory steps required to close the transaction.
These include seeking clearance for currency conversion and transfer of the balance of the transaction funds from SAFE and confirming approval from the Delaware Department of Insurance.
To allow additional time for Oceanwide to complete these final steps, the parties are working on an extension of the waiver and agreement of each party’s right to terminate the merger until not later than Dec. 31, 2020.
Genworth and Oceanwide are also working on a 90-day extension of each of the three $500 million tranches under the post-close Oceanwide capital plan.
“We are encouraged that Oceanwide continues to make progress on the remaining steps needed to complete the transaction,” said Tom McInerney, Genworth president and CEO.
“Although I am disappointed we could not close by November 30, we are hopeful that we can close in the first half of December, but have agreed to an end date of December 31, 2020 to allow more time for the remaining regulatory approvals to be achieved.”
Lu Zhiqiang, chairman of Oceanwide, also commented: “Securing these last few remaining regulatory approvals and finalizing our financing are important milestones in our efforts to close our transaction and fulfill our vision of bringing long term care insurance to China.”
“We look forward to working with Genworth to complete the remaining steps required to close the transaction in December.”
