(Yicai Global) July 25 -- Chinese ownership of Sino-Korea Life Insurance, a decade-old joint venture between South Korea’s Hanwha Life Insurance and China’s Orient Financial Holdings Group, will jump to 75 percent after five state-backed firms make strategic investments in the insurer.

The firms -- Changxing Financial Holdings Group, Wenzhou State-owned Financial Capital Management, Wenzhou Electric Power Investment, Wenzhou Transportation Development Group, and Guotai Junan Zhengyu Investments -- will take a combined 41.7 percent stake in Sino-Korea Life, Orient Financial said in a statement on July 22.

Trader Orient Financial disclosed their names in March, after new investment was sought through the Zhejiang Property and Stock Exchange in April last year.

Once the new investors buy into Sino-Korea Life, the Hangzhou-based insurer’s paid-in capital will double to CNY3 billion (USD444.1 million), and the stakes of Orient Financial and Hanwha Life, which now own half each, will drop to 33.3 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

The five investors, based in Changxing county and Wenzhou city, two relatively developed regions of China’s eastern Zhejiang province, may afford Sino-Korea Life preferential treatment in those regions, especially in corporate partnerships and group insurance, Shanghai Securities News reported today, citing a senior actuary.

Sino-Korea Life reported a CNY65 million (USD9.6 million) loss in the first quarter of the year. 

Editor: Futura Costaglione