Center

China Pacific chief throws in towel

By Hu Yuanyuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-08-02 09:03

The chairman of China's third-largest life insurer has quit ahead of the group's planned listing in Hong Kong due to its poor performance, according to media reports yesterday.

Shanghai Securities News quoted an unnamed source as saying that China Pacific Insurance group (CPIG) Chairman Wang Guoliang handed in his resignation after meeting Shanghai municipal government officials last Thursday.

A CPIG spokesman refused to comment on the report.

Wang's move is the latest in a series of personnel changes over the past few weeks among top executives at major Chinese State-run financial institutions.

Last week, Bank of Communications President Zhang Jianguo was appointed vice-chairman and president of the larger China Construction Bank, while his predecessor Chang Zhenming was earmarked to join financial conglomerate CITIC Group.

The Shanghai-based newspaper reported that Wang was expected to be appointed the supervisor of the board of Shanghai Electronics Development Holding Group Company, while Gao Guofu, the former general manager of Shanghai Chengtou Corporation, will become CPIG's new president.

Gao's major task will be to pave the way for the group's listing later this year.

The group is expected to float its shares in Hong Kong in November, with UBS as its financial consultant.

Growing numbers of CPIG shareholders started to question Wang's strategy as the group performed poorly in recent years .

Statistics from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) show that China Pacific Life Insurance's (CPLI) premium in the first six months of this year hovered around 19.2 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion), lagging far behind China Life's 111.4 billion yuan (US$13.9 billion) and Ping An's 37.3 billion yuan (US$4.66 billion). New China Life Insurance, the country's fourth-largest life insurer, is also catching up. It had a premium of 14.55 billion yuan (US$18.2 billion) in the first half of this year.