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More than 20% stake in insurance firms allowed for single investor

By Hu Yuanyuan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-05-20 17:42

China's insurance regulator on Thursday launched a rule on insurance companies' equity management, allowing a qualified single investor to have more than a 20 percent stake in an insurance company.

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The China Insurance Regulatory Commission said this is intended to reduce fights between stockholders by cutting down the number of investors. The qualified investor's net assets should not be less than 200 million yuan and the investor should be profitable for three years in a row.

The rule also stipulated that foreign institutions who want to invest in Chinese insurers should have net assets of no less than $2 billion yuan by the end of last year. Moreover, foreign institutions should be rated as A or above for three consecutive years by international rating agencies.