CATHAY FINANCIAL PREDICTS 50% RISE IN PREMIUMS

Taiwan-based financial holding group Cathay Financial said that it expected premiums at its China insurance joint venture with China Eastern Airlines to jump by more than 50% from the 329m yuan level ($42.6m) recorded in 2005. JV chairman Chang Fa-te said that the aim was to achieve breakeven by 2013 at the latest. The venture began business in Shanghai in 2005 after an agreement was signed in April 2004, the first such link-up between Taiwanese and Chinese companies in the insurance sector.