PRESS: Russia’s Rosgosstrakh may enter Chinese market

MOSCOW, Aug 10 (PRIME) -- Russian insurer Rosgosstrakh plans to spend about 4 billion rubles to acquire 20% in Chinese life insurer Guohe Life Insurance, which is to be established jointly with local company Anxin Trust and several other Chinese companies, business daily Vedomosti reported Wednesday quoting a Rosgosstrakh statement.

RGS Holding, another company of Rosgosstrakh’s owner Danil Khachaturov, will also participate in Guohe Life Insurance under a co-financing option, a representative of Rosgosstrakh told Vedomosti.

The Chinese regulator will decide on the joint company in one and a half or two months, the representative added.

Ingosstrakh Deputy CEO Ilya Solomatin told Vedomosti that building long-term strategic relations with the huge Chinese market is in the best interests of Russia. “For instance, collections of People's Insurance Company of China in 2015 stood at the equivalent of 2.8 trillion rubles, while its profit amounted to 280 billion rubles,” he said.

But it will be very difficult to receive approval from the Chinese regulator, as legislation is very tough toward foreign companies. It is nearly impossible to develop on one’s own in China, and the world’s largest insurers AIG and Allianz failed to enter the market, Solomatin said.

“Even after China has joined the WTO, foreign companies’ share on its insurance market does not exceed 3% even taking into account partnerships with local companies,” he said.

(64.7848 rubles – U.S. $1)

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