China Life sees investment opportunities overseas

SHANGHAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - China Life Insurance Co (601628.SS) sees investment opportunities emerging overseas as foreign governments act to resolve the global credit crisis, newspapers quoted a senior company official as saying.

Chief investment officer Liu Lefei was quoted by China Business News on Wednesday as saying China's biggest life insurer would cautiously but actively seek chances to buy foreign assets, given signs that the crisis was working towards a solution. Liu's remarks contrasted with comments that he made early this year, when he said China Life would shun fresh investments in foreign and domestic equities because of the crisis, the newspaper reported.

China Life currently has nearly 100 billion yuan ($14.7 billion) of cash on hand, about 10 percent of its investment assets, Liu told reporters.

"We are choosing opportunities to deploy this," he said.

China Life invested about $300 million in the U.S. initial public offer of credit card giant Visa Inc (V.N) in March but has since sold those shares, leaving its overseas investments essentially consisting of some Hong Kong-listed stocks, which remain in lock-up periods, China Business News said.

Liu was also quoted as saying that China Life would seek domestic investments in unlisted companies in core economic areas such as energy resources, power generation and transport.

But while he expressed optimism about China's stock market in the long term, he said it was likely to remain sluggish for two years as the economy adjusted from a period of very fast growth in which companies built up excess capacity.

China's fixed income market is set to remain relatively attractive for investment because of easing monetary policy, he said, adding that China Life now had about 80 percent of its funds in fixed income. ($1 = 6.82 yuan) (Reporting by Andrew Torchia; editing by Ken Wills)