AIA offloads more than 60% of its stake in CP All

The first half of 2012 has not been kind to investors, so it is perhaps no surprise that there has been a pickup in block trades in Asia during the past couple of weeks as some of them have tried to secure a bit of last-minute profit amid a tentative market rebound from the lows in early June.

Making use of the very last window to do so, pan-Asian life insurance company AIA sold about 62% of its stake in Bangkok-listed CP All during the lunch break on Friday, raising Bt4.5 billion $141 million. The deal was offered at a fixed price and was well received, allowing the deal...