China Life says quake claims to surpass snowstorms

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's largest life insurer, China Life (2628.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (601628.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said it expects claims for the Sichuan earthquake to far exceed the claims for freak snowstorms that hit southern China early this year, its president Wan Feng told a news conference on Monday.

The firm, which competes with smaller Ping An Insurance (2318.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (601318.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), has 110,900 policy holders in Wenchuan County, site of the epicentre of the earthquake, Wan said. More than half of those are students.

Wan said compensation for the earthquake would be "a huge test for the whole Chinese insurance industry."

"But China Life won't have a problem because the company has annual premium income of more than 200 billion yuan ($28.6 billion)," Wan added.

China's worst earthquake in three decades killed an estimated 10,000 in southwest China on Monday, and the death toll could climb further as rescuers reach more devastated areas.

China Life has already received claims related to deaths in Shaanxi, Gansu, Yunnan and Chongqing, Wan said.

Wan gave no details about the 110,900 life insurance policies in Wenchuan.

Figures for claims related to the snowstorms in southern China were not immediately available, but the disaster resulted in total direct costs of about 151.65 billion yuan.

"In terms of having more claims than the snowstorm, that's not a very high bar to jump over," said a Hong Kong-based analyst who declined to be identified.