China has created a new insurance group to take over the main operations of the financially beleaguered Anbang insurance group.

Beijing-based Dajia Insurance Group, which was established on 25 June, has CNY20.4bn ($3bn) in registered capital and will provide services as an insurance group as approved by the CBIRC, reported Bloomberg quoting documents on the website of the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.

The formal establishment of the new entity signals a major step in officials’ efforts to overhaul the conglomerate before returning it to private ownership as a two-year government takeover period ends next February.

Chinese regulators have started soliciting offers for stakes in the domestic business of Anbang, which is being taken over by Dajia Insurance, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News earlier last week.

At present, China Insurance Security Fund, the industry rescue body, owns 98.2% of Dajia Insurance, as it does Anbang. China Petrochemical Corp and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp hold the rest of the stake in Dajia Insurance, based on Bloomberg calculations according to shareholders’ committed equity contributions. 

During a two-year acquisition binge through 2016 that included New York’s iconic Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Anbang became synonymous with China’s unbridled appetite for international trophy assets. That ended when authorities took over the group in February 2018 after former chairman Wu Xiaohui was detained in June 2017. He was sentenced in May 2018 to 18 years in prison for fundraising fraud. They then began selling some of the assets Anbang had accumulated.