Standard Life aims for 40 China cities by 2010

HONG KONG, Mar 16 (Reuters) UK life insurer Standard Life plans to have outlets in 40 Chinese cities by 2010, as it changes its mainland expansion strategy to target provinces where it can become a market leader, a top executive said on Friday.

Standard Life, which runs a China insurance joint venture with China's TEDA Investment Holding Co., is currently in six cities and it plans to have offices by 14 at the end of this year, according to Alan Armitage, its Asia chief executive.

''We're changing our expansion strategy to a degree,'' he told Reuters in an interview. ''What you'll start to see from us is expansion into provinces.'' Rather than target specific cities, Standard Life plans to get approval to enter various provinces, which should improve its ability to open new branches in individual cities, he said.

Its Chinese joint venture is based in the northeastern city of Tianjin and it also has branches in Qingdao and Beijing.

Armitage said the insurer will avoid the oversaturated market of Shanghai for now, and look at provinces with large second-tier cities, which in China can still have populations of more than 5 million. Liaoning would be one attractive province, which has the large northeastern city of Shenyang.

''There's not many of our competitors there,'' he said.

Standard Life is also confident it will win an asset management license for China, granting it entry to the country's potentially massive group pension business.

''That's months away but signs are encouraging,'' Armitage said.

Trevor Matthews, chief executive of Standard Life Assurance Ltd., is in Hong Kong and plans to visit Shanghai next week as the insurer promotes the growing global shift of brokers from a transaction-based focus to long-term financial planning.

''We're excited about the opportunities in China,'' Matthews said, noting that around the world, ''we're at the dawn of a golden age of financial services''.

Ageing baby boomers and new UK principles have changed the model of the UK business into one where the insurance broker is more aligned with the customer, as the goal is to become a lifelong financial advisor.

''You'll see a (similar) evolution in Asia,'' Matthews said.

''What you'll see in Asia is a much faster transformation.'' REUTERS CS HS1458