* Highest bid at around $1.3 bln -sources
* At least five suitors have placed final bids -sources
* Insurance unit earned HK$325 mln profit in 2015
By Denny Thomas
HONG KONG, May 12 (Reuters) - Dah Sing Financial Holdings
Ltd 0440.HK has received at least five bids for its life
insurance unit, including offers from Canada's Sun Life
Insurance Inc SLF.TO and Chinese property developer Country
Garden Holdings Co 2007.HK , people familiar with the matter
said.
The highest bid in the final round for the insurance
business of one of Hong Kong's last remaining family-run banks
was close to HK$10 billion ($1.3 billion), about 30 percent more
than initially expected, they said, declining to be identified
disclosing confidential information.
China Taiping Insurance Holdings Co Ltd 0966.HK , unlisted
Qian Hai Life Insurance Co Ltd and Beijing-based investment firm
J.D. Capital also put in bids, they added.
It was not immediately clear who submitted the top offer.
One person said it was about 25 percent bigger than the next
highest bid. A winner is likely to be announced next month, the
people added.
The unit represents an attractive way for a traditional
insurer to expand sales of its products using Dah Sing's network
of 70 branches in Hong Kong, Macau and on the mainland. Other
suitors not currently in insurance are keen to diversify away
from their slowing home market, the people said.
Insurance businesses in Hong Kong have generated strong
interest. Last year J.D. Capital bought Ageas' AGES.BR Hong
Kong operations for about $1.4 billion.
Sun Life, Country Garden , Qian Hai and China Taiping
Insurance declined to comment. A representative for J.D. Capital
could not be reached for a comment.
Dah Sing said in an email that it was reviewing strategic
alternatives for its life insurance business but that no
decision had been made and no timetable had been set.
The sale had attracted over two dozen suitors but many
traditional insurers dropped out, unable to match aggressive
offers from other bidders, the people added.
Dah Sing's insurance business has an embedded value of about
$500 million, one of the people said. Embedded value is the net
asset value of an insurer plus the present value of potential
future profits from existing life and health insurance
contracts.
Dah Sing's insurance business reported a 29 percent rise in
net profit in 2015 to HK$325 million.
Hong Kong has a developed life insurance market, with a life
and health insurance premium to GDP ratio of 13.4 percent in
2015, the second-highest in Asia, according to Swiss Re.
Premiums are forecast to grow 9.2 percent in 2016.
($1= 7.7593 Hong Kong dollars)