Starr International joins Citic in private equity fund
NEW YORK: Maurice Greenberg's Starr International will take a 50 percent stake in a 1 billion yuan, or $129 million, private equity fund to invest in Chinese companies.
Starr International will invest alongside state-owned Citic Securities, China's biggest publicly traded brokerage, said Sarah Lubman, a spokeswoman for Greenberg. Greenberg, the former chief executive of American International Group, is chairman of Starr International and controls it through a charity he runs.
The deal is one of Greenberg's first confirmed investments in China since he was ousted from AIG, the world's biggest insurance company, after 38 years at the helm.
China is pushing bigger and financially stronger brokerages to expand and move into new businesses, while closing or forcing mergers of weaker firms.
