Shin Kong Life plans to move into Chinese market

Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), Taiwan's second-biggest life insurer, said it plans to form a life insurance venture in China, to tap a market which has been growing at an average of 30 percent annually since 1999.

Shin Kong Life is a unit of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co, the seventh-biggest of Taiwan's financial holding companies.

Shin Kong is in final discussions with a Chinese company and they plan to apply for a license by Sept. 30, said Matthew Feng, the Taipei-based insurer's Shanghai representative. Shin Kong plans to invest 400 million yuan (US$48 million) in the venture and its partner will provide matching funds, Shin Kong's president Pan Po-Cheng (潘柏錚) said. They didn't name their partner.

Life insurance penetration, or premiums as a percentage of gross domestic product, was 11 percent in Taiwan last year, compared with less than 2.5 percent in China, according to Swiss Reinsurance Co.

Each individual owned more than 1.6 policies in Taiwan last year, said Pan, compared with "well less" than one policy per person in the world's most populous nation.