(Yicai Global) Feb. 13 -- China Life Insurance and its parent China Life Insurance Group are not planning a listing through a reverse merger and have no important news to disclose, the controller of the nation's largest life insurer said today in response to a Bloomberg News report.

The group company is planning a backdoor listing of its key businesses in Hong Kong as early as this year, Bloomberg News reported yesterday, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter. The Beijing-based conglomerate plans to inject its main assets into its listed unit China Life Insurance, which will in turn issue new shares to the parent, the report added.

The move would enable China Life Group, which offers life, property and endowment insurances as well as asset management and e-commerce services, to widen its access to capital markets without going through the more complicated and lengthy process of a separate IPO, Bloomberg said.

China Life Insurance's Shanghai-listed stock [SHA:601628] ended today at CNY30.63 (USD4.38), down 1.64 percent, with a market capitalization of CNY870.6 billion (USD125 billion). Its Hong Kong-listed shares [HKG:2628] closed 1.62 percent lower at HKD19.46 (USD2.50) for a market value of HKD144.8 billion (USD18.6 billion).

The group had revenue of over CNY900 billion (USD129 billion) last year, with income from insurance premiums amounting to CNY700 billion, Chairman Wang Bin said on Jan. 16. It has total assets of CNY4.5 trillion (USD644.6 billion).

The conglomerate is one of the country's four main insurers. Rivals Ping An Insurance, the People's Insurance Company of China and China Pacific Insurance have already gone public.

Editor: Kim Taylor