By Zhang Ran (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-26 10:47

China Reinsurance (China Re), the nation's biggest reinsurance company, will introduce foreign insurers as strategic investors before it goes public, the industry regulator said yesterday in Beijing.

"China Re is preparing for a share float and it will let in foreign insurance companies as strategic investors," Li Kemu, vice-chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), told reporters on the sidelines of a financial forum. He declined to reveal which foreign investors the company is in talks with.

In October, China Re said it had completed a financial restructure, which transformed it into a joint venture firm with six subsidiaries.

It got a $4 billion capital injection from Central Huijin earlier this year. That investment gave Central Huijin, an investment arm owned by China Investment Corp, 85.5 percent of China Re. The Ministry of Finance holds the remaining 14.5 percent of its roughly 36 billion yuan in registered capital.

Industry insiders told China Daily earlier that the company is likely to hold a dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong next year.

"China Re could be the fourth insurer to list on the A-share market after China Life, Ping An, and China Pacific Insurance, which debuted in Shanghai yesterday," said Wu Yonggang, an analyst with Guotai Jun'an Securities.

China Re dominates the nation's reinsurance market. Several foreign insurers like Swiss Re and Munich Re have set up branches here.

By the end of September, China Re's assets totaled 94 billion yuan. The company's premium income hit 29 billion yuan in the first three quarters, a year-on-year jump of 41.6 percent.

China's reinsurance market is expected to be worth 100 billion yuan by 2010, when its total premium revenue exceeds 1 trillion yuan, according to the CIRC.

CIRC Chairman Wu Dingfu said in October that reinsurance could help to push the overall development of the insurance market and it is an important indicator of the maturity and safety of a country's insurance sector.

"The China Re restructure was crucial to enhance its underwriting and strengthen competitiveness on the international market," Wu said.