Looking for a Stable Industry? Try Chinese Life Insurance

Is all the global gloom and doom getting you down? Moody’s Investors Service has an upbeat report on Chinese life insurers, who entered 2008 with record high profits and whose exposure to the sub-prime mortgage crisis is limited.

Chinese insurers .. are in a relatively good position versus their foreign counterparts because their exposures to structured fixed income investments and foreign securities are minimal, due mainly to regulatory restrictions.

China’s life insurance industry is the third-largest in Asia behind Japan and South Korea, but its penetration of the market is still relatively low, Moody’s noted, and it expects premiums growth for 2008 in a range of 30 percent to 40 percent.

The industry is highly concentrated, with China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (NYSE:LFC), Ping An Insurance Group Co. of China (PNGAY) and privately held China Pacific Life Insurance Co. accounting for more than 65 percent of China’s total life insurance premiums, Moody’s said.

For details, see “Industry Outlook: Chinese Life Insurance.”

Comments

[investor88:]

Not if the performance of the Chinese insurance shares are a guide. Buy after the financial storm?

2008 Nov 18 06:35 PM

[JimWe:]

What about the potential instability that will come with a recession?

This is all uncharted territory. None of us know what will happen if there is a serious downturn in China.

2008 Nov 18 06:43 PM