Chubb acquires majority stake in major China insurer

Insurer Chubb has received regulatory approval from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to increase the company's ownership in Huatai Insurance Group Company from 47.3% to 83.2% — becoming the first foreign firm to majority-own a Chinese financial services holding.

Huatai is the holding company of a number of subsidiary companies including Huatai Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Huatai Life Insurance Company, and Huatai Asset Management Company. Huatai's insurance operations have more than 700 branches, 23,000 agents and approximately 19 million customers in China.

Huatai Asset Management has over $100 billion in assets under management and is licensed to manage institutional, pension and retail mutual fund businesses.

As of September 30, 2022, Huatai Group had assets of over $10 billion (excluding third party funds) and equity of over $2 billion. In 2021, Huatai had total revenue of over $2 billion.

The company expects the transaction to close early in the first quarter of 2023.

"This is the culmination of a 20-year effort," said Evan Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Chubb. "Upon the closing of the acquisition of these shares, Chubb will be the first foreign financial institution to majority-own a Chinese financial services holding company, with separate P&C, life, asset management and mutual fund subsidiaries."

"China is currently the second largest insurance market after the United States. With an aging and more affluent society comes the growing demands for insurance and asset management products and services," Greenberg noted. "We take a long-term view, and I am confident Huatai will grow in time to become a meaningful contributor to our revenue and earnings in the future."

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