A day after Visa's record $17.9 billion IPO last Tuesday, Ping An Insurance Co Ltd <2318.HK> <601318.SS>, China's No.2 life insurer, paid 2.15 billion euros ($3.4 billion) for half of the investment arm of Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis NV <FOR.BR>.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China Life Insurance Co <601628.SS> <2628.HK>, the country's biggest life insurer, said on Monday that it had invested $300 million in Visa Inc's <V.N> initial public offering in its maiden overseas investment.
A day after Visa's record $17.9 billion IPO last Tuesday, Ping An Insurance Co Ltd <2318.HK> <601318.SS>, China's No.2 life insurer, paid 2.15 billion euros ($3.4 billion) for half of the investment arm of Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis NV <FOR.BR>.
Chinese financial institutions are actively exploring overseas markets in search of new profit streams.
China Life Chairman Yang Chao has said that he was interested in taking a stake in China Development Bank and Agricultural Bank of China as well as in buying into foreign banks.
!ADVERTISEMENT!At Visa's closing share price last Thursday of $64.35, China Life noted that it was enjoying paper gains of about 50 percent from the credit card company's IPO price of $44.
(Reporting by Eadie Chen; Editing by Alan Wheatley and Edmund Klamann)
