From Financial Times:
Beijing raised the limits for overseas investment by Chinese insurance companies on Wednesday to 15 per cent of their assets, potentially adding up to $50bn to the wall of money available. China’s Insurance Regulatory Commission said it was raising the cap on overseas investments by insurers from 5 per cent with immediate effect. Chinese insurers have a combined Rmb2,500bn ($330bn) in assets; a total growing at 25-30 per cent a year.
Since 2004, some insurers have been allowed to invest foreign exchange earned by overseas share sales in offshore fixed income securities. Last year the government allowed some firms to buy limited amounts of foreign exchange to invest in the Hong Kong initial public offerings of some mainland Chinese companies. [Full Text]
