The mainland's third-largest life insurer, part-owned by US firms Carlyle and Prudential Financial, is expected to have a new controlling shareholder ahead of a planned Hong Kong listing, industry sources said.

Top mainland steel maker Baoshan Iron and Steel Co Ltd is in talks to sell its 26 per cent stake in China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co, with a deal expected to materialize in coming months, they said. Beijing-based Huawen Enterprise Co, a subsidiary of "People's Daily", is in the lead to buy the stake, after initiating talks with Baosteel several months ago, they said. Both parties had yet to negotiate a price for the transfer. Neither China Pacific, nor Baosteel nor Huawen were immediately available for comment.

China Pacific sold 25 per cent of its life insurance arm to the Carlyle Group and Prudential Financial for US$400 million last year, a deal that took about two years to hammer out due in part to objections from some domestic investors, led by Baosteel. But industry sources said Baosteel was now eyeing other more lucrative investments and was prepared to offload its stake in the Shanghai-based insurer.

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