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Axa will grow in non-life insurance in Asia. The French group is about to get their hands on some of the activities of the Sino-British HSBC. The Ace Group and Zurich Australian QBE were also in the race. The announcement of the transaction could, according to a source familiar with the matter, taken as soon as next week, as reported by several Chinese newspapers. At the headquarters of Axa, there was no comment Tuesday.

HSBC hoped to sell all of its activities damage valued around 750 million euros to 1 billion of net premiums collected in 2011. But the British would have resolved to give the geographical batch. And it is on Asia, the birthplace of the banking group, Axa would concentrate.

If it ends, the operation would be part of the new strategic plan for 2015 Axa. This project includes the objectives of growth, cost reduction and redeployment of capital to business lines and countries most profitable. Axa has recently withdrawn and certain activities in developed economies, by disposing of assets in Canada and Great Britain.

The group tries to conquer China for several years. He began a partnership in China in late 2010, ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), the country's largest bank. ICBC had entered the capital of the joint venture specializing in life insurance with Axa had founded the China Metallurgical Group Minmetal and was committed to a distribution agreement. HSBC had begun the sale of its non-life insurance in September.

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