Genworth Reaffirms Plan To Be Acquired by Chinese Company

Henrico County-based Genworth Financial Inc. on Thursday reiterated its commitment to being acquired by a China-based financial company, two days after the U.S. government blocked another high-profile acquisition of a U.S. firm by a Chinese company.

Genworth, an insurance company with thousands of employees in Virginia, has been trying to get federal government approval to be acquired by China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co. Ltd. The $2.7 billion deal was first announced in October 2016.

Acquisitions of U.S. companies by Chinese firms have been facing increased scrutiny and skepticism under the Trump administration, according to numerous media reports.

On Tuesday, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, a multiagency panel that reviews foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies, blocked the proposed sale of money-transfer service Moneygram to Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese company Alibaba.

Genworth's proposed sale to China Oceanwide also is under review by CFIUS. Concerns about the security of U.S. citizens' personal information is one of the major issues, Genworth executives said at the company's annual shareholders meeting in December.

Genworth sells home mortgage insurance and long-term care insurance.

To win approval of the deal, Genworth has said it is working on a "mitigation plan" in which its customers' personal data would be controlled by a U.S.-based, third-party administrator.

The companies jointly said Thursday that they "remain committed to the transaction and have been working cooperatively with CFIUS" since first filing for approval of the deal in January 2017.

Since then, the companies have twice announced the withdrawal and refiling of their application with CFIUS to address regulatory concerns and provide more time for the review, while also extending the deadline to complete the acquisition.

"We are encouraged by the progress we are making, which is one of the reasons we extended the merger agreement to April 1, 2018," Thomas McInerney, president and CEO of Genworth Financial, said in a statement.

"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."

The deal also still needs approval from state regulators in Delaware and New York, and from regulators in China.

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