Chinese insurance firms continue overseas acquisitions

In an effort to diversify investments and seek returns, many Chinese insurance firms have invested into the overseas real estate sector.

In 2014, China Life bought 70 percent of an office building along London's Canary Wharf in a $1.35 billion deal, and in 2013 Ping An Insurance Group bought the Lloyd's of London building for 260 million pounds ($388m).

Peagam says that buying a singular asset is very different from and much simpler compared to buying an insurance company, which is far more complicated because it requires a great deal of effort to keep the target firm profitable.

When acquiring an insurance company, Chinese firms can diversify the type of insurance business they do. If they do one type of insurance business in China, and they want to access another type of insurance business, it may be easier to just go overseas and buy, he says.

"As a company expands into different markets and takes on different types of risks, it will experience less volatility and more stable returns," he says.