China Life Insurance announced Monday that the price range for its domestic initial public offering (IPO) will be 18.16 to 18.88 yuan.

The company will issue no more than 1.5 billion A-shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, said Yang Chao, chairman of China Life, at an online IPO promotion on Monday.

Buyers will be able to subscribe shares on Dec. 25 and Dec. 26,and the definitive IPO prices will be announced on Dec. 28, according to Yang.

With its business expanding quickly, China Life has become one of the world's largest life insurance companies in terms of market value. The company was valued at 500 billion Hong Kong dollars at the end of November.

Chinese analysts said the return of the Hong Kong-listed insurance giant to the domestic stock market would improve the overall quality of domestic-listed companies. It will also give investors an opportunity to share the fruit of the booming Chinese insurance industry.