Prudential, in the end, was hoist by its own petard. The more it talked up AIA, the more attractive the asset seemed to everybody else. AIG's decision to turn down the Pru's proposal to pay 14 per cent less for its main Asian unit, “after careful consideration”, must mean the group has assurances from sovereign wealth funds such as Singapore's Temasek and China Investment Corporation, and perhaps strategic investors such as China Life and Ping An, that there is strong appetite for a reversion to plan A: an initial public offering in Hong Kong. In iffy markets, it is usually the mid-sized offerings that suffer, not the mega-deals such as AIA.
保诚集团(Prudential)最后搬起石头砸了自己的脚。它越是吹捧友邦保险(AIA)，这项资产对其他人的吸引力就越大。美国国际集团(AIG)“经过慎重考虑后”，决定拒绝保诚将收购价降低14%的提议。这肯定意味着，AIG得到了新加坡的淡马锡(Temasek)和manbetx3.0 投资公司(China Investment Corporation)等主权财富基金、或许还有manbetx3.0 人寿(China Life)和平安保险(Ping An)等战略投资者的保证，它们对重拾原计划有着强烈的兴趣：AIA在港上市。在不可靠的市场，受影响的通常是中等规模的上市，而不是像AIA这样的特大交易。