HONG KONG — China Life Insurance Co., the nation's biggest life insurer by premiums, said Thursday a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission probe into its affairs has ended and that investigators have not recommended any action against the firm.

The disclosure removes lingering investor concerns over the company's past. It will also likely make it easier for China Life to court investors, particularly from overseas, and make acquisitions, analysts said.

The insurer, listed in Hong Kong and New York, said Thursday the SEC terminated the informal inquiry it launched in April 2004 and "no enforcement action has been recommended."

In February 2004, China's National Audit Office said there were alleged accounting irregularities involving 5.4 billion yuan at China Life's predecessor before it was restructured for an initial public offering in December 2003.

The insurer is 72 percent-owned by the state China Life Insurance (Group) Co.

"China Life wants strategic investors, and this announcement makes the process a whole lot quicker," said Patrick Pong, an insurance analyst at South China Securities in Hong Kong.

That process is already underway after China Life said in April it was considering selling stakes to two or three strategic investors to strengthen corporate governance and broaden its products.

"There are many waiting at the door to invest in China Life," Chairman Yang Chao said in April.

Now that door is a little wider, giving comfort to overseas insurers and their shareholders as they look to invest in China's still vastly underpenetrated insurance market, said Judy Zheng, an analyst at Sun Hung Kai Financial in Hong Kong.

"This is positive for sentiment for China Life, it removes investor concerns and especially increases confidence of (overseas) investors," she said.

Analysts said that while China Life has about half of the domestic insurance market, it needs to diversify its products and inject management expertise from overseas insurers to expand further.

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© 2006 The Associated Press