UK-based insurer Prudential has announced that its Chinese joint venture, CITIC Prudential, has received a life insurance license to operate in Nanning City, the capital city of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwest China.

Nanning City, which is located in the southern part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has a population of 6.7 million. The new branch is expected to be operational by Q4 2007.

Garth Jones, Prudential managing director of insurance in China, said: The Nanning branch license grants us access into our sixth new province in Guangxi, next to Guangdong province where we already have presence in eight cities. We will leverage on the advantage of being the first foreign insurer in Nanning, Guangxi and continue to build a material life insurance business in China with our partner CITIC. Our expansion into Nanning underscores our commitment to meet the savings, protection and investment needs of the Chinese people.

During the first quarter of 2007, CITIC Prudential established two new sales offices in in Zhuhai, in Guangdong Province and Ningbo, in Zhejiang Province. These, together with the Nanning City branch license in Guangxi, mean that CITIC Prudential now has licenses in 21 cities covering six provinces and three direct administration zones, making it the leading European life insurance joint venture in China.