Manulife venture to open in Shaoxing

12 October 2005

Manulife Financial Corp, Canada's biggest insurer, said its mainland venture received approval to open an office in the city of Shaoxing, making it the biggest foreign insurer in terms of Chinese branches and giving it license to sell life insurance in 11 cities in China, Bloomberg reported. As of August 31, overseas companies had an 11.3% share in China's life insurance market compared to 2.4% a year ago.