China Life invests $300 million in Visa IPO

BEIJING (Reuters) - China Life Insurance Co (601628.SS) (2628.HK), the country's biggest life insurer, said on Monday that it had invested $300 million in Visa Inc's (V.N) 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) (601318.SS), 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).

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)