China Life not to bid for AIA: company chairman

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-04 00:18

BEIJING -- China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (China Life) will not bid for the American International Assurance Company Ltd. (AIA), the Asian life insurance unit of the ailing American International Group Inc. (AIG), said China Life chairman Yang Chao here Tuesday.

The Chinese insurance giant made the decision because the AIA's asset quality, business conditions and staff as well as the perception of its brand had changed greatly, said Yang on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of China's top advisory body.

A China Life official submitted on Monday a statement to the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited declaring it has no plan to bid for AIA, said Yang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The auction of the AIA was triggered by the need to repay a five-year, $60- billion government loan as the AIG came close to collapse last year amid the global financial crisis.

Bank of China, another potential bidder for the AIA, said in mid-February it was not bidding for the troubled insurer.

The US government said Monday it will provide another $30 billion to the AIG to stave off a meltdown of the company.

The AIG, once the world's largest insurer, reported it lost $61.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, the biggest quarterly loss in US corporate history.

For all of last year, the insurer posted a net loss of $99.3 billion.

In an effort to avert a potentially catastrophic collapse of AIG, the US government had already pumped some 150 billion dollars into the ailing company.