Tongyang, ABL Life's governance structure to remain unchanged

ABL Life Insurance, left, and Tongyang Life Insurance's building in Seoul / Korea Times file

By Kim Bo-eun

The corporate governance structure of Tongyang and ABL Life Insurance, owned by China's Dajia Insurance Group, will likely remain unchanged despite China's regulators' management of Dajia coming to an end last week.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said in a statement Saturday that it had ended a two-year takeover of Anbang Insurance Group, which the authority reestablished as Daija group last year.

China's regulator took over the troubled Anbang group in February 2018 to improve its financial health, after the group fell into heavy debt following its excessive acquisition of overseas assets. Anbang's former chairman Wu Xiaohui was sentenced to 18 years in jail for financial fraud and embezzlement in May the same year.

CBIRC established Dajia group in July 2019, with Anbang's healthy assets including its life insurance, pension and asset management businesses.

The regulator's management of the insurance group was initially set to end in February 2019, but was extended by another year.

CBIRC, which has sought to privatize Dajia group, said Dajia is now seeking to attract strategic investors.

The regulator said it has "secured social investors" to establish an adequate shareholding structure for Dajia.

Both Tongyang and ABL said they could not offer a precise explanation on what "social investors" referred to.

Both insurers also said they had not received any notifications on Dajia's management plans since CBIRC's management of the group came to an end last week.

Tongyang said in a statement released Monday that its governance structure would remain unchanged.

Dajia Life Insurance holds 42.01 percent of Tongyang Life's shares and Dajia Life's affiliate Anbang Group Holdings holds 33.3 percent. Anbang Group Holdings owns 100 percent of ABL Life's shares.