China Life Insurance and its parent have dumped more than 331 million shares of Citic Securities to cash in almost 7 billion yuan (HK$7.94 billion), boosting the biggest mainland insurer's cash flow after a severe loss in the equity market last year.
The securities firm said China Life and its parent had reduced their combined holding in the mainland's largest brokerage to 12.32 per cent from 17.32 per cent as of Wednesday.
China Life sold 301.5 million Citic Securities shares and still held 494 million, or 7.46 per cent of the brokerage, Citic said in a statement. Its parent sold 30 million shares.
Shares of Citic Securities fell 1.7 per cent to 21.30 yuan yesterday.
'It is not unusual for China Life to dump shares on the secondary market,' China Jianyin Investment Securities analyst Xu Shoude said. 'The insurer will stay financially healthy if it doesn't embark on an aggressive expansion strategy this year.'
The insurance giant warned investors in January that last year's earnings would drop more than 50 per cent as it was battered by a 65.4 per cent stock-market slump.