By Du Xiaoli (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-11-08 15:45

Qualified domestic institutional investors, or QDII, from China's insurance sector, will officially open for business as early as the end of this month or the beginning of the next, according to the Beijing Morning Post.

Related readings:  China's QDII quota hits US$42.17b by end-September  Investors seek safety in QDII funds  Harvest stock QDII fund stirs up investors  China grants QDII licence to JVs of CSuisse, DBS

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Ltd and Huatai Insurance Company of China Limited already have licenses to invest in the Hong Kong stock market by purchasing foreign exchanges, said the report.

So far banks, fund management companies, securities firms, trust companies and insurance firms, which belong to the banking, securities and insurance industries respectively, have all been granted QDII licenses. QDII from banks and fund management companies were allowed to invest overseas earlier.

Insurance company overseas investment funds are not allowed to exceed 15 percent of their total assets recorded at the end of the previous year, according to relevant rules released by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

According to calculations based on total assets of Ping An Insurance and Huatai Insurance at the end of 2006, the two companies will have quotas of 22 billion yuan (US$2.96 billion) and 960 million yuan respectively for investment in the Hong Kong stock market.

Ping An Insurance was given the green light to invest in the Hong Kong stock market via foreign exchange purchases using renminbi funds not exceed five percent of its total assets recorded at the end of the previous year. The investment will be mainly in H-shares or red-chip shares in Hong Kong stock market.

The ceiling of the five percent includes overseas investments totaling US$1.75 billion granted to Ping An Insurance earlier. The total assets of Ping An Insurance hit 441.791 billion yuan at the end of the previous year.

Ping An Asset Management (Hong Kong) Co Ltd and Citibank (China) Co Ltd's Shanghai branch will be the trustee and custodian for Ping An Insurance respectively. Ping An Asset Management (Hong Kong) Co Ltd, established on March 1, 2007, will be responsible for all of Ping An Insurance's overseas investment and management businesses and offer overseas investment products and third-party asset management. The trustee for Huatai Insurance is Huatai Asset Management Co Ltd and the custodian for the company is the same as Ping An Insurance.