China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co, the nation's third-largest insurer, raised 30 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion) in its Shanghai initial public offering yesterday, the second-biggest mainland share sale by a Chinese insurance company.

Pacific Insurance, 19.9 percent owned by companies controlled by funds managed by the Carlyle Group, sold one billion new shares at 30 yuan each, the top end of a range, according to a sale document.

Investors are piling into China's IPOs, seeking an escape from a secondary stock market disturbed by concerns about rising domestic interest rates and other government measures to cool growth in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

"Chinese investors still have a lot of appetite for insurance stocks, since there will be only three companies traded domestically," said Ke Shifeng, who helps oversee about US$5 billion of Greater China assets for Martin Currie Investment Management in Shanghai. "The IPO market remains red-hot unlike the secondary market, where there's no longer a pool of easy money after recent market ups and downs."

The 22 Chinese domestic IPOs that have begun trading since November 1 have risen at least 59 percent, beating an almost 15-percent decline in the nation's benchmark CSI 300 Index during the same period, Bloomberg News figures show.

The IPO is the fourth-largest public share sale by an insurance company worldwide since at least 1999.

Shenzhen-based Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, the nation's second-largest insurer, raised US$5 billion in February in the world's biggest stock sale by an insurer.

(Shanghai Daily December 18, 2007)