China's Anbang agrees to buy Allianz S.Korean life insurer -Korea Economic Daily (updated)

TONGYANG Life Insurance

06/04/2016 03:15

(Adds requests for comment, Anbang context) 
    SEOUL, April 6 (Reuters) - China's Anbang Insurance Group 
has signed an agreement to buy Allianz's  ALVG.DE  South Korean 
life insurance unit for about 250 billion won ($216 million), a 
South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday.  
    Anbang and the German insurer signed the sale agreement on 
Tuesday, the Korea Economic Daily reported, citing unnamed 
sources in the insurance industry.  
    The paper said executives of Anbang, Allianz and 
Anbang-controlled Tongyang Life Insurance  082640.KS  planned to 
visit South Korean financial regulators on Wednesday to present 
the agreed deal. Allianz had put the unit up for sale as part of 
a global overhaul of operations.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1631E8 
    The Chinese firm has been an aggressive acquirer of overseas 
assets, including New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. But last 
week it abandoned a $14 billion bid for Starwood Hotels & 
Resorts Worldwide Inc  HOT.N , paving the way for a rival bid by 
Marriott International Inc  MAR.O .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N17357E 
    Officials at Anbang in China and Allianz's South Korean unit 
could not immediately be reached for comment. 
     
($1 = 1,158.5400 won) 
 
 (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Shu Zhang in 
BEIJING and Saeed Azhar in SINGAPORE; Editing by Michael Perry 
and Kenneth Maxwell) 
 ((jungyoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5609; Reuters 
Messaging: jungyoon.lee.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: ALLIANZ SALE/ANBANG SOUTHKOREA