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Carnival Group International Signs Share Placing Agreement with CTBC Life
Taiwan's Leading Financial Institution to Tap Potential in High Growth China Tourism and Consumption Sector through Equity Investment
HONG KONG, Nov 17, 2014 - (ACN Newswire) - Carnival Group International Holdings Limited ("Carnival Group International" or the "Group;" stock code, 996), China's only publicly listed developer of large-scale integrated tourism, hospitality and retail projects that combine theme parks, hotels, outlet shopping for international premium brands, dining, conference and exhibition centres, leisure, entertainment and recreational facilities, today announced a top-up placement of existing shares and a subscription of new shares. The Group, through a top-up arrangement, is to place 220,000,000 shares at HK$1.13, representing approximately 1.68% of the issued share capital, to CTBC Life Insurance Co., Ltd. ("CTBC Life"), Taiwan's leading financial institution.
Pursuant to the subscription agreement, Mr. King Pak Fu, Chairman of Carnival Group International and its largest shareholder, agreed to subscribe for 220,000,000 new shares at the same price (HK$1.13). The price represents a discount of 8.13% on the closing price of HK1.23 per share as quoted on the Stock Exchange on 17 November 2014.
Total proceeds of approximately HK$248,600,000 will be used for general corporate purposes.
CTBC Life is a life insurance company in Taiwan and a subsidiary of CTBC Financial Holding Co., Ltd. ("CTBC Holding"). After a series of acquisitions in the past few years, CTBC Life now offers a variety of insurance products to individuals and companies, and it aims to become one of Taiwan's top five insurance companies. Its parent company, CTBC Holding, established in 2002 and headquartered in Taiwan with over 10,000 employees and with assets in excess of NT$3.45 trillion, is a major financial holding company that invests in areas of banking, insurance, securities, venture capital, asset management, investment, etc. In 2013, one of the subsidiaries of CTBC Holding, CTBC Bank Co., Ltd., was awarded the "Best Bank in Taiwan" by Euromoney, The Asset, Finance Asia, as well as Global Finance as well as having won over 100 awards from renowned organizations in Taiwan and abroad.
Mr. King Pak Fu, Chairman of Carnival Group International, said, "We are excited to have CTBC Life, one of the major subsidiaries of CTBC Holding, as a strategic shareholder of our Group. CTBC Holding is a leading Asian financial institution group with global footprint in a diversity of businesses including banking, insurance, securities, asset management and investment. As an experienced and far-sighted global investor, CTBC Holding's equity investment in our Group via CTBC Life demonstrates that 1) its confidence in our Group's timely transformation from a real estate developer to a developer of large-scale integrated tourism, hospitality and retail projects in China and other parts of Asia with experiential consumption themes such as such as theme park, international premium brand outlet mall, hotel, dining, leisure and entertainment facilities and 2) its recognition that a partnership with our Group offers the best way to capture the enormous opportunities brought about by the increasing affluence and spending power of the Chinese population and the rapidly growing tourism market in China and overseas, after evaluating our business model, strategic development plans and project pipeline.
"In July 2014 we signed with Taiwan-based E-United Group to acquire an interest in its award-winning E-Da World project, which is a leading vacation destination in southern Taiwan, and is also the only complex in Taiwan that contains integrated experiential consumption themes such as theme park, international premium brand outlet mall, hotel, dining, leisure, entertainment, health-care, education, art, culture and real-estate development. In addition to this, we are actively reviewing a number of investment opportunities in Taiwan as well as searching for new integrated tourism, hospitality and retail investment and development projects in mainland China and selected overseas destinations. We see CTBC Holding as an invaluable partner in our expansion in the experiential consumption and tourism sector whereby our Group can leverage on its global footprint, financial resources and investment expertise in Taiwan, the PRC and other geographical locations to enhance our strategic development plan with high growth potential."
Mr. Leung Wing Cheong, Eric, Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Group International, said, "We are pleased to expand our shareholder base through this share placement agreement to include a long-term, institutional investor who is genuinely confident in the sustainable growth of the China tourism consumption sector. The proceeds from the share placement combined with CTBC Life as our strategic shareholder will further strengthen our financial resources to execute our experiential consumption and tourism business model and strategic development plan, which are expected to createtremendous value for our shareholders."
Carnival Group International is China's only publicly listed developer and operator of large-scale integrated tourism, hospitality and retail complex projects. The group has selected prime locations in China with vast development potential to develop one-stop experiential consumption and tourism projects comprising facilities for leisure, entertainment, outlet shopping for international premium brands, recreation, dining, spa, medical beauty, gym & fitness, wedding, conventions and exhibitions. Our flagship project, Rio Carnival (Qingdao), is due to open by mid-2015. The group has also recently announced two MOUs signed with the Taiwan E-United Group to acquire an interest in the E-Da World projected located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and with the Malaysia-based Berjaya Leisure/Berjaya Times Squire to acquire an interest in the Berjaya (China) Great Mall project in the greater Beijing area, respectively.
Contact:Strategic Financial Relations Limited
Ming Chan Tel: (852) 2864 4892 Email: ming.chan@sprg.com.hk
Sophie Du Tel: (852) 2114 4901 Email: sophie.du@sprg.com.hk
Source: Carnival Group International Holdings Limited
Sectors: Daily Finance, Daily News
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