Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- TPG Inc. and Bain Capital LLC, are among firms invited to bid for Axa SA’s stake in China’s Taikang Life Insurance Co., three people familiar with the matter said.

Axa, Europe’s largest insurer, has asked prospective buyers to submit non-binding offers for its 15.6 percent stake in Beijing-based Taikang Life before Nov. 6, two of the people said. The Paris-based company is seeking to sell the stake for about $1 billion, the people said.

Axa became a shareholder in Taikang in 2006 by acquiring Credit Suisse Group AG’s Winterthur insurance unit. Winterthur had a 15.6 percent stake in Taikang Life, which was the fifth- biggest life insurer in China in the first nine months of 2009, according to China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Carlyle Group bought about 17 percent of China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., the nation’s third-biggest insurer, in stages starting in 2005. When China Pacific went public in December 2007, Carlyle’s stake was worth seven times more than the $772 million it paid to accumulate the holding.

Blackstone Group LP, KKR & Co. and Temasek Holdings Pte are also expected to prepare bids, Reuters reported earlier.

Morgan Stanley, hired by Axa to advise on the sale, also approached Hopu Investment Management Co. about the Taikang stake, one of the people said. Hopu has made investments in China Construction Bank Corp. and Bank of China Ltd. this year.

Nick Footitt, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for Morgan Stanley, and Laurent Secheret, Axa’s Paris-based spokesman, declined to comment, as did officials at the private equity firms.

China Life Insurance Co. and Ping An Insurance Co., the nation’s two biggest insurers, have a combined 55 percent market share in the nation, according to the insurance regulator. Taikang Life has 7.6 percent.

Axa ranks No. 33 by premiums on the Chinese life-insurance market, according to the company’s 2008 annual report. The company in 1999 created Shanghai-based life insurer Axa-Minmetals Assurance Company Limited.

To contact the reporters on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at kchan14@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 3, 2009 22:37 EST