PIC CHINA GETS NODFROM REGULATORS FOR STOCK MARKET LISTING

The People's Insurance Company Group of China (PICC) has received approval from the State Council to list on both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong stock markets.

Wu Yan, president of the PICC, said that the group is likely to begin to move towards listing next year, adding that the insurer will invite strategic investors before making its initial public offering.

The PICC will transform the group company into a join-stock company in the near future, a change that has been approved by the Chinese regulatory authorities. Wu said that the PICC would increase its registered capital to 30.6 billion yuan (US$4.5 billion) from 16.4 billion yuan, in order to function properly as a joint-stock company.

The insurer has also established an effective and standardized corporate governance structure and a capital self-injection mechanism.

The PICC will achieve multiple-profits in its property, life insurance business and other financial investment sectors in 2010, said Wu.

By the end of July, the PICC posted total assets of 302.3 billion yuan, up 50 percent year on year. The total assets under its custody reached 725.1 billion yuan, 189 percent more than in the same time last year.

The PICC is the parent company of PICC Property and Casualty Co. (2328.HK), China's largest property insurance company.