Early Warning System

Countries

China

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Financial Institutions

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Active

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Voting Date

Jun 19, 2017

Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.

Borrower

Union Life Insurance Co., Ltd.

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Finance

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Type(s)

Equity

The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 106.87 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Currency conversion note:
Bank reported RMB 690 billion
Converted using 2017-04-14 exchange rate.

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Aug 1, 2018

Disclosed by Bank Apr 14, 2017

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Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

The proposed project entails IFC’s equity investment of up to RMB690 million (US$100 million equivalent) in Union Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (“Union Life”, the “Company”).

Union Life was established in 2005 by a group of domestic private enterprises and is headquartered in Beijing, China. The Company currently operates in 26 provinces through 28 branches, over 750 sales offices, and 78,000 agents, and serves nearly 4 million long term individual customers. The Company recorded gross written premium of RMB18.8 billion (US$2.8 billion equivalent) in 2016. Its total asset and shareholders’ equity stood at RMB81.7 billion (US$ 12 billion equivalent) and RMB6.1 billion (US$897 million equivalent), respectively, by the end of 2016.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Zhongfa Group is the single largest shareholder of Union Life with 46% equity stake. Zhongfa Group is a large national privately-owned holding company which covers several industries including financial services, healthcare, tourism and property management. Other shareholders of Union Life include Simaite Investment Co., Ltd. (18.48%), Hubei Chuhan Trade Co., Ltd. (13.86%), Hubei Defan Investment Co., Ltd. (13.86%), Beijing Tianxinjie (4.43%), and Taiyo Life (3.31%).

Financial Intermediary

A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.

Union Life Insurance Company (Financial Intermediary)

Private Actors Description

A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/

CONTACTS

Union Life Insurance Co., Ltd.
Ms. Jiaoyang Guan
Chief Actuary

guanjy@ulic.com.cn

http://www.unionlife.com.cn/