CHINA’S Anbang Insurance Group said yesterday it signed a deal to acquire German insurer Allianz’s South Korean units for an undisclosed sum, extending a push that has so far seen it spend billions of dollars on overseas assets.

    The deal extends an overseas acquisitions push that has made Anbang, sitting on US$253 billion in assets, one of the biggest corporate buyers from China in the last few years. After 2015’s headline-grabbing US$1.95 billion purchase of New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, last month it agreed to buy Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. from Blackstone Group LP for US$6.5 billion.

    But last week the Beijing-based firm retreated from a US$14 billion bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., raising questions about corporate China’s appetite for Western assets amid jitters over the country’s economy.

    In the latest deal, Anbang will buy Allianz Life Insurance Korea and asset management unit Allianz Global Investors Korea, the Chinese and German companies said in a joint statement. Last year Anbang bought a 63 percent stake in South Korea’s Tongyang Life Insurance for 1.1 trillion won.

    Allianz is selling the operations as part of a global overhaul in a tough low-interest rate environment. The transaction is subject to local regulatory approvals.

    A South Korean newspaper reported earlier yesterday that Anbang had agreed to buy Allianz’s life insurance unit for about 250 billion won (US$216 million), citing unnamed sources in the insurance industry.(SD-Agencies)