China rolled out a package of capital injections worth about 360 billion yuan (US$54 billion) on Sunday for the country’s largest state-owned insurers and state banks, marking a step towards Beijing’s long-flagged plan to build itself into a global financial powerhouse.
The Ministry of Finance, which led the move, had rarely injected capital into financial institutions at such magnitude, according to analysts.
China Life Insurance Company said it would receive 35 billion yuan to help strengthen its “ability to withstand risk”, according to its website.
Among banks, the Agricultural Bank of China planned to raise up to 160 billion yuan through a private placement of new A shares to the finance ministry, China National Tobacco Corporation and related subsidiaries, an exchange filing showed.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) was targeting up to 100 billion yuan from the same group of investors, according to an exchange filing.
