The board of China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) yesterday approved a proposal to raise NT$3.93 billion (US$121.1 million) via an issuance of 200 million new shares at around NT$19.65 apiece, the company said.
The new capital will be used to fund expansion, said a public relations official who declined to be named.
Pending a regulatory approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission, China Life was expected to complete the capital injection “by the end of this year,” she said, adding that the final share price was subject to market conditions at the time of sales.
The capital injection, however, has nothing to do with boosting China Life’s risk-based capital (RBC) level, which has reached 300 percent, far above the statutory 200 percent level, she said.
“Our life insurer has been outperforming its peers and profit-making for the past year,” she said.
Seventy-five percent of the 200 million new shares will be acquired by the life insurer’s stakeholders, including True Prospect Ltd with a 10 percent stake, KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) with a 7.8 percent stake and another investment fund with a 5 percent stake, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Another 15 percent, or 30 million shares, will be reserved for employees, while the remaining 10 percent, or 20 million shares, is scheduled to be sold to the public, the filing said.
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