CHINA Life Insurance and China Taiping Insurance have expressed initial interest in acquiring ING Life Insurance Korea in a sale that could fetch about US$3 billion, two sources with direct knowledge of the deal said yesterday.

Kyobo Life Insurance, which previously confirmed it had placed an initial bid to buy South Korea’s fifth-largest life insurer, was dropped by seller MBK Partners, one of the sources said.

The sources declined to be identified as the sale process was confidential.

Increased Chinese interest in ING Life Insurance Korea follows Anbang Insurance Group’s purchases of German insurer Allianz’s South Korean businesses for more than US$3 million in April and last year’s purchase of a 63 percent stake in the country’s Tongyang Life Insurance for 1.1 trillion won (US$923.80 million).

Private equity firm MBK acquired the life insurer for 1.8 trillion won from the Netherlands’ ING Groep in 2013. At the time, MBK agreed to use the ING brand for five years.

ING Life Insurance Korea has 30 trillion won in assets, with book value of 4.2 trillion won by end-2015. It has a lower percentage of high-interest fixed rate products than the industry average that have weighed on life insurers in South Korea, the company has said.

With Kyobo’s dropout, seven bidders who put in letters of interest remain in the race, including five China-based bidders, an unnamed South Korean suitor and an unnamed European contender, said South Korean deal-focused media Market Insight yesterday, citing unnamed investment banking sources. (SD-Agencies)