| China Life sees share price double in Shanghai debut |
SHANGHAI, Jan. 9 (AP) -- China Life, the country's No. 1 life insurer, saw its share price soar in its widely anticipated debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, an IPO expected to raise up to 28 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion).
China Life's shares opened trading at 37 yuan (US$4.74), up from the company's initial public offering price of 18.88 yuan (US$2.42).
Its shares were trading at 39.12 yuan (US$5.00;?3.84) by midmorning.
The company already has shares traded in New York and Hong Kong, a Chinese territory that is treated as a foreign economy for regulatory purposes.
Chinese officials are trying to develop the country's stock markets by encouraging bigger companies to list shares domestically following a wave of overseas IPOs that have raised billions of dollars.
China Life has benefited from strong growth prospects and the relative scarcity of insurance stocks on mainland exchanges, as well as an overall buying fervor that began late last year.
The company's "A" shares are restricted mainly to trading by Chinese citizens or a small number of foreign institutional investors approved to invest in domestic shares.
Forty percent of the shares were earmarked for strategic investors who have not been publicly identified.
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a forecast in October that revenues for Chinese insurers should exceed 1 trillion yuan by 2010, more than double 2005's 493 billion yuan.
Regulators expanded investment options for insurance companies this year by letting them buy stakes in commercial banks.
China Life recently paid 5.7 billion yuan for a 20 percent stake in Guangdong Development Bank as part of a consortium led by U.S.-based Citigroup Inc.
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