AXA ASIA PACIFIC REJECTS $10-BILLION AMP, AXA BID

       Axa Asia Pacific Holdings, the Australian unit of France's biggest insurer, rejected an unsolicited US$10-billion (Bt333.3-billion) bid from parent Axa SA and wealth manager AMP in Asia's largest takeover offer this year.
       Sydney-based AMP bid 5.34 Australian dolalrs in cash and stock for each share of Melbourne-based Axa Asia Pacific, 24-per-cent higher than Friday's closing price. Under the proposal, Paris-based Axa SA would sell its 54-per-cent stake in Axa Asia Pacific to AMP, and buy back the Asian units for A$7.7 billion (Bt237.6 billion).
       Axa Asia Pacific shares soared as much as 35 per cent, indicating investors expect a higher bid. The offer marks the second attempt by Axa SA to buy the unit in the past five years to tap rising wealth in a region recovering from the global financial crisis faster than the US and Europe.
       "This offer is not anywhere near acceptable," said Rob Patterson, at Argo Investments, in Adelaide. "Including Axa Asia Pacific and AMP shares. It looks pretty low ball. The Asia business of Axa Asia Pacific is a growth option."
       Shares of Axa Asia Pacific jumped 33 per cent to A$5.70 at the close in Sydney trading after chairman Rick Allert said on a conference call with reporters that he was not prepared to accept an offer he considers too low.
       "If they come back, then we'll look at whather they come back with," Allert said.
       Axa SA said yesterday it will raise 2 billion euro (Bt99.7 billion) in a rights offer to finance acquisitions. Investors will be offered one new share for every 12 existing shares and the capital raising will be priced at 11.90 euro a share, Axa said in a statement.
       Axa Asia Pacific is responsible for Axa Group's life insurance and wealth management businesses in the region. It has operations in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand, according to the company's website. It employs more than 2,300 people in Australia and New Zealand, and around 1,900 in Asia.
       The combined riches of milion-aires in China, whose economy grew 9 per cent last year even as the US and Europe slipped into recession, over took that of the UK to rank fourth, according to a report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in October. The wealth of Asia-Pacific millionaires will incease 8.8 per cent annually until 2018, compared with a global average of 7.1 per cent, the firms forecast.