New China Life Insurance Co Ltd, the country's third-largest life insurer by market share, will boost its overseas investments and those in the private equity and real estate sectors this year, a senior official said on Wednesday.

"We've got the approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to set up an asset management company in Hong Kong, which will better promote our overseas investments this year," said Kang Dian, the chairman of New China Life.

According to Kang, several overseas equity and private equity investment projects have been filed to the board last year but failed to pass. But after the regulator expanded the investment channels further last year, New China Life will launch more trials in the new investment areas.

The insurer now has a $500 million quota for overseas investments and has secured a license from the industry regulator to invest overseas and invest in private equity and real estate projects.

The company posted a 4.8 percent increase in its 2012 net profits to 2.93 billion yuan ($460 million), it said in its annual report.

The company's return on investment, or ROI, was 3.2 percent in 3012, down 0.6 percentage points year-on-year. But its rate of return on common stockholders' equity was up 0.6 percentage points to 4.7 percent. Its embedded value — an important indicator of the insurer's future profitability — grew 16.1 percent to 5.68 billion yuan. And the company's insolvency ratio stood at 192.56 percent at the end of 2012, compared with last year's 155.9 percent.