China Life Q4 profit down 42 pct on disaster claims

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, March 25 - China Life Insurance Co <2628.HK><601628.SS>, the world's largest life insurer by market value, posted on Wednesday a 42 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit on a slump in the stock market and a large number of claims due to disasters.

Net profit fell to 8.17 billion yuan ($1.20 billion) from 14.2 billion yuan a year earlier. That compares with analysts' forecast of 8.52 billion yuan, according to Reuters Estimates. The result were calculated by subtracting nine-month results from full-year figures.

China Life and smaller rival China Ping An Insurance (Group) Co <2318.HK><601318.SS> suffered from a collapse in investment returns last year as the country's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index <.SSEC> tumbled nearly 70 percent last year.

It also said China's Sichuan earthquake and major snow storms last year resulted in a large number of claims.

For the full year, China Life's net profit dropped 45 percent to 21.3 billion yuan, from 38.9 billion in 2007.

China Life warned in January that profit may fall more than 50 percent in 2008, after almost doubling in 2007.

Its shares fell 17.5 percent in the last quarter of 2008, compared with a 13 percent loss on the index for major Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong <.HSI>.