CATHAY Insurance Co will inaugurate in Shanghai on September 26 as the first Taiwan-invested property and casualty insurer on China's mainland.

The insurer is set up by two Cathay Financial Holdings affiliates - Cathay Century Insurance and Cathay Life Insurance Co - with a registered capital of 400 million yuan (US$58.4 million). The two investors are equal partners in the Shanghai-based P&C insurance company which got approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission at the end of August.

Initially, the insurer will have more than 50 employees, with half of them from Taiwan, it said yesterday.

The insurer will first target Chinese mainland corporations invested by Taiwan enterprises. It is also interested in the mainland's compulsory vehicle insurance market, which is not opened to overseas insurers yet.

China's mainland allows overseas investors to set up wholly overseas-owned P&C insurers. Overseas investors can hold up to 50 percent in a life insurance joint venture.