Bunge to buy plant in China

NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? Bunge Ltd., the world's biggest oilseed processor, said it agreed to buy a soybean processing plant in China, the world's biggest soybean importer, to add customers.

The purchase, Bunge's first in China, is a joint venture with Sanwei Group Ltd., Bermuda-registered Bunge said in a statement. Sanwei will have a minority stake in the newly formed company, which wasn't named. Terms of the transaction expected to close in September weren't disclosed.

Soybean consumption in China rose at an average annual rate of 11 percent since 1998, Bunge said. This year, the China National Grain & Oils Information Center expects production to drop 4 percent to 17.3 million tons. A smaller crop may boost demand for imports.

The plant is located in Rizhao, a port city in the Shangdong Province, Bunge said. A call late today to the office of Bunge spokesman Stewart Lindsay wasn't immediately returned.

QBE plans string of acquisitions

LONDON (Bloomberg) ? QBE Insurance Group Ltd., the second- biggest insurer at Lloyd's of London, has 14 acquisitions in the pipeline, chief executive Frank O'Halloran said.

"Acquisition activity is in Latin America, the US, the UK, central Europe and parts of Asia," O'Halloran, 59, said in an interview in Hong Kong yesterday. In Asia, Sydney-based QBE is targeting insurers in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore, he said.

O'Halloran, in charge of Australia's biggest property and casualty insurer by premium income, in April reiterated his forecast that full-year profit will rise by more than ten percent as acquisitions bolster sales. He's trying to increase income by buying businesses in Latin America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region as competition cuts the profitability of policies.

In March, QBE purchased an insurer in Colombia and an underwriter operating in France, Germany and Spain, adding A$150 million ($112 million) of premiums a year.

"Excess capital we have at the group level is sufficient to fund the acquisition activity," O'Halloran said. QBE has made 90 acquisitions in the past 20 years.

Hannover Re optimistic about China

HONG KONG (Bloomberg) ? Hannover Re, the world's fifth-biggest reinsurer, said it expects to get a licenCe to underwrite local currency life reinsurance in China before the end of this year, expanding business in the world's most populous nation.

"It's definitely a limitation not to have a license and not to be able to write yuan business" in China, said Hannover Re Chief Executive Wilhelm Zeller in an interview in Hong Kong today. The German reinsurer is awaiting approval to open a branch for life reinsurance in Chinese yuan, he said.

China's life insurance market grew at an average of 30 percent a year between 1999 and 2004 as the government rolled back welfare benefits, encouraging more of its 1.3 billion people to seek protection from commercial insurers. The life market, valued at $39 billion, accounted for almost 80 percent of the total premiums earned last year.