China Life Insurance Co., Beijing, hired Goldman Sachs Asset Management, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Neuberger Berman Group, Schroder Investment Management and State Street Global Advisors to manage multiasset-class allocations, said two sources who declined to be named.
The company's board announced Dec. 20 it had approved three-year contracts for five multiasset-class managers of offshore assets. The announcement didn't name the managers chosen or provide details regarding the size of the allocations.
Spokesmen for GSAM, Neuberger Berman, Schroders and SSgA declined to comment; a spokesman for J.P. Morgan Asset Management couldn't immediately be reached.
Lan Yuxi, a Beijing-based spokesman for China Life, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The Dec. 20 announcement also said the board had approved contracts for three managers of global equities. China Life hired American Century Investment Management and Franklin Templeton Investments for two of those allocations, both sources said.
The identity of the third active global equity manager could not be determined. One source said SSgA garnered the third global mandate, but the other identified BlackRock as the recipient of a passive global equity allocation from China Life.
The average size of the eight mandates is US$100 million, said a Singapore-based money management executive, who declined to be named.
Spokesmen for American Century, SSgA and BlackRock declined to comment. A spokesman for Franklin couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
While a handful of insurers have extended broad, advisory mandates to offshore managers since overseas investments were permitted starting in 2012, the hires by China Life — China's biggest life insurer with investment assets of 1.849 trillion renminbi (US$296 billion) — mark the first set of targeted mandates handed out, said Ivan Shi, senior manager, research, with Z-Ben Advisors, a Shanghai-based consultant on financial industry business opportunities in China.
