TOKIO MARINE MULLS REDUCING TIAN AN INSURANCE STAKE

Japan’s Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Insurance plans to reduce its participation in a Chinese property insurance joint venture to focus instead on incorporating a local branch in Shanghai, local reports claim. Tokio Marine was the fist Japanese insurer to open in China with a Shanghai office in 1994. It bought a 24.9% stake in Shanghai-based Tian An Insurance Company in 2005. But according to a report in the official Shanghai Securities News, Tokio Marine has decline to subscribe for additional shares in a placement offered by Tian An Insurance. Chinese rules forbid foreign insurers from owning stakes in more than one domestic firm engaged in the same sector. And both Tokio Marine and Tian An offer property insurance. However Tokio Marine and its affiliate Millea Asia hold a combined 24.99% stake in another Chinese insurer, Sino Life Insurance Company.