Samsung Life picks candidates to manage 2010 IPO

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Life, South Korea's top life insurer, picked on Friday five candidates to manage its initial public offering next year, which reportedly could raise 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) or more.

Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BAC.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) are candidates for the overseas portion of the IPO. Among local brokerages Korea Investment & Securities and Shinhan Investment Corp were in the preliminary list.

Samsung Life said in a statement it would negotiate with the candidates to choose a lead and other managers to arrange the deal. It said this month it was aiming to go public in the first half of next year and no decisions had yet been made regarding the size of the offering.

The company, which has 129 trillion won in assets according to its latest financial report, join a series of insurance offerings in Asia estimated to represent as much as $20 billion over the next three years.

South Korea's $63 billion life insurance market by premium income is led by three top players -- Samsung Life, Korea Life and Kyobo Life.

On the local off-board market for unlisted shares, Samsung Life last traded at 850,000 won per share, not far from its lifetime high of 887,500 won.

Tong Yang Life Insurance (082640.KS) became South Korea's first listed life insurer in September.

Korea Life Insurance Co, the country's No. 2 life insurer, is also expected to raise around $2 billion in 2010, in what would so far be Korea's largest IPO since 2006.

($1=1156.8 Won)

(Reporting by Rhee So-eui; Additional reporting by Shin Jieun; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)