China Life invests $300 million in Visa IPO

BEIJING (Reuters) - China Life Insurance Co (601628.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (2628.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the country's biggest life insurer, said on Monday that it had invested $300 million in Visa Inc's (V.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) initial public offering in its maiden overseas investment.

A day after Visa's record $17.9 billion IPO last Tuesday, Ping An Insurance Co Ltd (2318.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (601318.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), China's No.2 life insurer, paid 2.15 billion euros ($3.4 billion) for half of the investment arm of Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis NV (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Chinese financial institutions are actively exploring overseas markets in search of new profit streams.

China Life Chairman Yang Chao has said that he was interested in taking a stake in China Development Bank and Agricultural Bank of China as well as in buying into foreign banks.

At Visa's closing share price last Thursday of $64.35, China Life noted that it was enjoying paper gains of about 50 percent from the credit card company's IPO price of $44.

(Reporting by Eadie Chen; Editing by Alan Wheatley and Edmund Klamann)