Singapore's Great Eastern opens Vietnam unit

HANOI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Great Eastern Holdings (GELA.SI), Singapore's only listed insurer, said on Wednesday it has established a wholly foreign-owned subsidiary in Vietnam to sell life insurance policies and manage financial investments.

Great Eastern Life Vietnam Co Ltd, based in Hanoi with a registered capital of 600 billion dong ($37 million), said in a statement it would also provide re-insurance and investment funds at a branch in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's commercial centre.

Great Eastern Holdings is 87-percent owned by Singapore's number three bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC.SI).

Vietnam, which became a member of the World Trade Organisation in January 2007, fully opened its insurance market to foreign firms at the start of this year.

Life insurance premiums in the country of 85 million people jumped 12 percent last year to 9.5 trillion dong, industry reports show. ($1=16,079 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; editing by Darren Schuettler)