Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with word jump. 3 news.

THE prospects of rising profit for China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co have created a buzz among stock analysts who forecast that the insurer's stock is likely to jump about 50 percent on its A share debut today in Shanghai. Everbright Securities Co expects shares of Pacific Insurance to be between 42.60 yuan (US$5.81) and 44.30 yuan apiece, up from its offering price of 30 yuan. Guotai Jun'an Securities has a higher valuation of 43.80 yuan to 46.80 yuan while Haitong Securities sees a range of 40.64 yuan to 45.22 yuan. Pacific Insurance raised 30 billion yuan in its Shanghai initial public offering last week, making it the sixth-biggest IPO on the Chinese mainland. The Shanghai-based insurer sold one billion yuan-backed new shares, or 13 percent of its enlarged capital, at the top end of its offering price range of 27 yuan to 30 yuan. "Pacific is the sole comprehensive insurer whose business is balanced between life and property and casualty insurance," said Pan

GENERAL Motors Corp said it has become the first overseas car maker to sell one million units on the Chinese mainland this year. The milestone is a result of GM adopting a multi-brand strategy and growing its lineup of vehicles in the world's second largest auto market over the past 10 years. GM didn't give specific sales figure for the whole year. Last year, it sold 876,747 units on the mainland, a jump of 32 percent from 2005 and outpaced the growth of the entire auto industry of 25 percent. The one-millionth figure was marked when GM China Group President and Managing Director Kevin Wale handed the keys to a Buick Park Avenue to Zhang Jianping at Shanghai GM's corporate showroom in Shanghai last Friday. It took GM five years to boost sales by 10 times from 100,000 units in 2002 to one million units this year amid fierce competition with rivals like Volkswagen and Toyota. Detroit-based GM, the world's largest car maker, has a flagship passenger car venture Shanghai

Michigan employers and workers will face heftier payouts for health insurance premiums and doctor's office visits in 2008.