Canada's Manulife Financial Corp and the Indian affiliate of Standard Life plc are among the suitors to place first-round offers for HSBC plc's Indian life insurance business, a stake valued around $200 million, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.HSBC plc, Europe's biggest bank, is selling its 26 percent stake in a life insurance joint venture with two Indian state-run banks, as it sheds noncore businesses globally.The winner of the auction will get immediate access to about 5,500 branches of the two state-run banks. Bancassurance - an arrangement in which a bank and an insurance firm tie up so that the insurer can sell its products to the bank's customers - is emerging as a key tool to sell insurance products across Asia as the life insurance industry matures in the region.HDFC Life, a joint venture between India's top mortgage lender HDFC Ltd and British insurer Standard Life ; Birla Sun Life, a venture between Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla Group and Canada's Sun Life; and ICICI Prudential Life, a joint venture between India's No. 2 lender ICICI Bank and Britain's No. 1 insurer Prudential, are among the bidders to submit first-round bids last week, the people said.
Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC) is a financial services group. Shares of MFC traded higher by 1.01% or $0.14/share to $14.03. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $9.97 and as high as $15.70. On average, 1819180 shares of MFC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1698811.
Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC) is a financial services group. Shares of MFC traded higher by 0.99% or $0.14/share to $14.26. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $10.18 and as high as $15.75. On average, 4031140 shares of MFC.TO exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 3977739.
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