Life Insurance interested in bank stake
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-03 06:28 BEIJING, July 2 - Top Chinese insurer China
Life Insurance Company Ltd. said on Sunday it was seeking a stake in
Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country's four biggest banks, which said
it looked forward to such a move.
China Life was "willing to conduct capital cooperation with Agricultural Bank
of China and establish deep ties in terms of shareholding reforms and market
listing", Xinhua news agency quoted the insurer's chairman, Yang Chao, as
saying.
Bank President Yang Mingsheng said he held an "optimistic attitude toward
Yang Chao's expectations".
"Agricultural Bank offers China Life a chance," Xinhua quoted Yang as saying.
Xinhua did not elaborate.
The bank is the weakest of China's big four, heavily burdened by bad debts
accumulated by unwise or non-commercial lending, typically to unprofitable
government projects or to other customers who were not creditworthy.
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