ALLIANZ, TOKIO MARINE, GROUPAMA, LOSE OUT IN CHINA BID SAYS REPORT

Property/casualty insurer Allianz Guangzhou, Japan’s Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire and France’s Groupama have lost out in their bids to obtain approval for local incorporation. Xinhua reported that Tokio Marine was penalised for activities last year by its Beijing office, while Allianz had been investigated by regulators for possible affiliate trading. Groupama’s agricultural insurance operation was said to be too new to be suitable for transformation into a full subsidiary. The report comes in the wake of AIG subsidiary AIU and US insurer Liberty Mutual announcing that their applications for local incorporation had been approved. Allianz Guangzhou will submit another application within six months, a Shanghai Securities News report said, while Xinhua cited a “well-informed source” as saying that all three unsuccessful candidates could receive licences through reapplication before the year was out. At the US-China economic dialogue in May. China promised that it would make decisions before August 1 on allowing branches of foreign p/c companies to obtain local incorporation.