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Taiwan Life Insurance to set up in China

Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) said that it received approval from Chinese banking authorities to set up an insurance joint venture in China.

Taiwan Life, the nation's eighth-largest life insurer, received the green light from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the company said in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday.

The filing did not identify the partner nor when the venture would begin operations.

But the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday that Xiamen C&D Corp (廈門建發集團) in Fujian Province is the firm, with both parties providing 200 million yuan (US$27.8 million) for the joint venture.

Taiwan Life rejected the claim, the newspaper said, adding that the company was planning to provide details on its investment plan following the Lunar New Year holiday.

Taiwan Life chairman Chu Ping-yu (朱炳昱) said last April that the company had signed a confidential agreement with a Shanghai-based insurer to tap into the Chinese market.

Taiwan Life is one of several local life insurers that are increasingly looking at opportunities abroad as domestic competition intensifies. The Taiwanese market is more developed than those of its Asian neighbors.

A report by Moody's Investors Service entitled Market Perspective: Taiwan Life Insurance said that Taiwan's penetration rate of 3.2 percent in terms of life insurance premiums -- as measured as a percentage of the nation's GDP -- is already the highest in Asia excluding Australia.

It was natural for Taiwanese life insurers to expand into China, with which Taiwan shares a language and culture, said the Moody's report, which was released last month.

If the proposed joint venture is established as expected, Taiwan Life will become only the third Taiwanese life insurer to have such a tie-up with a Chinese partner, following its bigger rivals Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽).

Cathay Life, the nation's largest life insurer, formed a joint venture with Beijing's state-run China Eastern Airlines Corp (東方航空) in January 2005, while Shin Kong Life teamed up with Hainan Airlines Group (海南航空集團) last November.

Taiwan's financial markets were closed yesterday, the beginning of the holiday, and will reopen on Tuesday.
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