MID-SIZED Chinese lender Bank of Beijing, seeking to expand its revenue streams, is in talks to buy into two Chinese insurance ventures of its Dutch minority shareholder ING Groep NV.

Bank of Beijing, in which ING holds a 16.07 percent stake, also plans to set up a fund management arm either by acquiring an existing firm or by setting up a business from scratch, the bank’s chairman, Yan Bingzhu, told reporters yesterday.

If successful, Bank of Beijing would become the first of China’s 114 city banks to run a fund firm as well as to have an insurance venture.

ING has two life assurance ventures in China: ING Capital Life Insurance Co., based in the northern city of Dalian, and Pacific-Antai Life Insurance Co., based in Shanghai.

“Currently, we are in talks with each other. We are interested in both,” Yan said when asked about a possible insurance tie-up with ING. He was speaking after a news conference in Beijing to discuss the bank’s interim results.

The Dutch financial services group holds a 50 percent stake in the two ventures; China Pacific Insurance Group holds the other half of Pacific-Antai Life, while Beijing Capital Group owns half of the Dalian joint venture.

Yan declined to elaborate, but three industry sources close to Bank of Beijing said the bank expects to buy out China Pacific’s stake in Pacific-Antai Life and is also in talks with Beijing Capital Group for a stake in ING Capital Life.

China Pacific, the country’s third-largest life insurer, is preparing for a domestic initial public offering this year so it has to sell its stake in the Shanghai venture to comply with securities regulations, the sources said.

Beijing Capital Group is also likely to sell part of its holding in ING’s Dalian venture to Bank of Beijing, largely in response to prodding by the Beijing city government, the sources said.

Officials at both Pacific-Antai Life and ING Capital Life declined to comment.

(SD-Agencies)