Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, China's second-largest life insurer, has won government approval to invest about 10 billion yuan ($1.26 billion) in one of the country's major railway projects.

Ping An, in which HSBC Holdings Plc holds 19.9 percent, plans to invest in building a railway between the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and Wuhan in central China, making it the first insurer permitted to invest in a railroad.

Ping An Trust, an investment arm of Ping An Insurance, will raise at least 8 billion yuan for the railway through a trust investment product targeting institutions. Roadshows for the product began this week in Guangzhou and Wuhan.

The Wuhan-Guangzhou railway is expected to open for public use in 2010 and the government has estimated total investment at about 100 billion yuan, state media reported late last year when construction began.

Ping An will work with the ministry of railways on the project. The government will invest about 50 billion yuan in the railway and leave the other half to institutional investors such as asset management companies or insurance firms.

Earlier this year four Chinese insurers, including Ping An and bigger rival China Life Insurance Co. , were given credentials to invest in the country's infrastructure projects for the first time, as part of Beijing's efforts to broaden their investment options.

Source:佚名