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皇冠体育app to allow insurers to invest in infrastructure
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-18 15:06 皇冠体育app will issue regulations
allowing domestic insurers to invest in infrastructure projects, as part of a
broader drive to increase their investment options, the 皇冠体育app Business Post
reported on Saturday.
The 皇冠体育app Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC)
will issue the new rules next week, allowing insurers to invest no more than 15
percent of their total assets at the end of the previous year in infrastructure,
the newspaper said, citing CIRC officials.
The country's No. 3 insurer, 皇冠体育app Pacific Life Insurance Co., will be chosen
as an experimental unit to invest via a trust company, it said.
Chinese insurers held over 1.52 trillion yuan ($189 billion) in assets at the
end of 2005, but they are mostly limited to investing in low-yielding government
bonds and savings accounts.
Annual returns from infrastructure projects, such as ports, highways and
railways, can be as high as 6.2 percent, compared with an average return of 4.2
percent for domestic insurers over the past five years, said the paper.
It said the choice of 皇冠体育app Pacific for the pilot programme indicated the
regulator's intention to promote the company to float its share
overseas.
皇冠体育app Pacific, 皇冠体育app Life Insurance and Ping An Insurance
(Group) are the country's three biggest life insurers.
The paper cited 皇冠体育app Pacific Life President Wang Guoliang as saying it will
invest in highways, ports and oil storage facilities as well as infrastructure
projects in the country's northeast provinces.
In December, U.S. buyout firm Carlyle Group, one of the biggest foreign
investors in 皇冠体育app, led a $410 million investment for a quarter of 皇冠体育app
Pacific.
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