Union Life Insurance is planning to sell a controlling stake that could be snapped up by locals or foreigners looking to tap into the country's growing demand for insurance products, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Beijing-headquartered Union Life, expected to be valued at $1.5-2bn, plans to sell a stake of as much as 51%, with an option to raise that to 100% later, the people said, declining to be named as the details are not public yet.

AIA, the world’s second largest life insurer by market value, as well as the Asian unit of Prudential are among the foreign players likely to submit initial bids due over the next few weeks, the people added.

News of the sale comes as China is in the process of easing foreign ownership curbs for life insurance joint ventures to 51% from 50%. Beijing also pledged in 2017 to remove the limit completely in three years as it pushes to open up its financial sector worth trillions of dollars.

A majority sale to an offshore company would mark a rare purchase of a financial services firm in China by a foreigner, indicating Beijing’s push to ease ownership rules and attract investors is paying off. It will also dispel doubt about China’s commitment to liberalise the market.

The shortlist of buyers interested in Union Life after the first-round bids is likely to be completed by the end of this quarter, one of the people said.

At present, Hong Kong-based AIA is the only wholly-owned foreign life insurance firm in China as its operations were set up before the ownership restrictions were introduced.

Founded in 2005 in central China’s Hubei province, Union Life is a national insurer with more than CNY80bn ($11.8bn) in assets. Its life insurance business raked in CNY14.5bn in premium over January-November 2018.