BEIJING, Aug. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Two new insurance companies, China Life Insurance (Group) Company and China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. opened for business in Beijing Thursday, aiming for listing on the overseas market, reported Thursday's Economic Information Daily.

　　The two new companies derive from the Beijing-headquartered China Life Insurance Company, the largest commercial insurer in China.

　　The paper quoted Wang Xianzhang, general manager of China Life, as saying that the birth of the new companies is an optimized restructuring of resources and a strategic choice for international competition, instead of just setting up two separate smaller branch units.

　　China Life is preparing to submit application for listing to the American Securities and Exchange Commission, in a hope to enter the market in New York and Hong Kong between November and next April, revealed sources from China Life.

　　China Life reported more than 100 billion yuan (about 12 billion US dollars) of insurance income in the first seven months of this year, with its assets accounting for 48 percent of the total assets of all the insurance companies in China. Enditem