China Life Announces Veteran Zhao Lijun As New CFO

It’s safe to say new China Life Insurance Chief Financial Officer Zhao Lijun has a lot on his plate now that he has received approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission and finally gotten to work. The firm announced a 67 percent plunge in profits in the first half of 2016 and has ambitions to expand its overseas investment in real estate as a path to more profitable investments.

Of course Zhao is no stranger to China Life and will know what he is getting into having joined the firm in 2003. In addition to being appointed as a Vice President earlier this year, he was serving as the Chief Financial Officer and General Manager of the Finance Department at China Life. The Anhui Finance & Trade College graduate has also spent time in China Life’s Legal and Compliance department and also headed the firm’s Shandong branch.

He will be taking over for Yang Zheng who resigned in August citing issues with work arrangements at China Life. Yang’s tenure as CFO at the mainland insurer lasted a little more than three years.

In October, the Beijing-based firm acquired a $2 billion stake in a portfolio of US hotels from Starwood Capital Group. China’s largest insurer has shown an appetite for US real estate teaming with New York developer RXR Realty on $1.65 billion deal for Manhattan office tower 1285 Sixth Avenue and taking a majority stake in a $500 million mixed-used project being developed by Tishman Speyer in Boston.

After the Starwood deal, China Life is estimated to have $44.7 billion still available for outbound investment should it push its overseas holdings up to 15 percent of its total assets — the largest proportion allowed by China Insurance Regulatory Commission rules passed in 2014.