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Insurance Australia Group (IAG), the largest car and home insurer in Australia, has agreed to buy almost a quarter of China Pacific Property Insurance Co for US$279 million, buying into a market with annual growth of more than 20 percent.

 

"Negotiations have progressed to the stage that draft transaction agreements have been confirmed" for filing with China's regulator, IAG said in a statement yesterday.

 

The Sydney-based insurer has been in talks with China Pacific for more than a year over a 24.9 percent stake in its property unit.

 

And the company may further lift its stake to 40 percent subject to regulatory approval.

 

As the second-largest general insurer in the country, China Pacific Property Insurance currently has around a 12 percent share of China's home and auto insurance market.

 

"The key will be what role and control IAG has over underwriting activities and management," said Hao Yansu, an insurance professor with the Central University of Finance and Economics.

 

Analysts believed that this move could pave the way for China Pacific Insurance (Group)'s initial IPO.

 

Company Chairman Wang Guoliang said the group was aiming for an IPO sometime in the next two years.

 

Michael Hawker, chief executive officer of IAG, is seeking overseas acquisitions because the firm has more than 40 percent of Australia's auto and home market, restricting domestic expansion.

 

Property and casualty sales in China rose 9.4 percent to 60.5 billion yuan (US$7.6 billion) in the five months ending in May from a year ago, the country's Insurance Regulatory Commission said in June.

 

The stake in China Pacific will add to Insurance Australia's other assets in Asia.

 

It owns businesses in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as Shanghai-based China Automobile Association.

 

Hawker plans to get 40 percent of his premium income from outside Australia and New Zealand by 2012.

 

If recently announced purchases in Asia are completed, including the China Pacific stake, IAG will get about A$800 million (US$593 million), or about 12 percent, of its A$6.6 billion (US$4.9 billion) premium income in Asia, Hawker said in February.

 

"We've still got considerable work to do," he said at the time.

 

China Pacific had 13.1 billion yuan (US$1.64 billion) of sales in the 10 months that ended on October 31, with almost 60 percent of that in auto insurance, IAG said five months ago.

 

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co, China Pacific Property's parent, sold 24.9 percent of its life insurance unit to US buyout firm Carlyle Group and Prudential Financial Inc, the No 3 US life insurer, for US$400 million in December.

 

(China Daily July 4, 2006)