Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Insurance giants jostle for slice of Southeast Asia market

The race to win a larger slice of the insurance market of Southeast Asia is heating up as the AIA Group (1299.HK), Manulife (MFC.TO) and Prudential PLC (PRU.L) will compete for mid-sized acquisitions in the region totaling up to $ 1 billion, sources said.
The three insurance groups as well as France's AXA (AXAF.PA) and Sun Life Canada (SLF.TO) submitted an initial bid for the Malaysian life insurance venture between CIMB Joint Group (CIMB.KL) and Aviva (AV.L), a deal estimated to be worth at least $ 400 million, the resources, with direct knowledge of the matter, said.
The moves against the backdrop of a $ 7 billion auction for ING (ING.AS) Asian insurance business of some foreign insurers exit the region to focus on their core market, while some larger ones and new Participants try to get greater exposure in Asia.
"Many of the recent opportunities are driven by distressed sellers, whether due to government bailouts, the impact of Basel III or lack of focus and investment resulting in underperformance," says Anna Tipping, a partner at law firm Norton Rose, which specializes in insurance.
AIA and Manulife also running for the Asian insurance business ING, while Prudential is seen as a strong contender to buy Thai Bank Pcl of TCAP.BK Thanachart insurance operations in a deal worth about $ 500 million, the resource said.
The fundamentals appear compelling. Life insurance premiums in emerging Asia is forecast to grow 9.6 percent this year and 8.7 percent next year, compared to world average of 3.1 percent and 3.7 percent in two years, respectively, according to estimates by Swiss Re .
Expected growth comes after the life insurance market grew 15.4 percent annually over the past 10 years, now exceeding the global growth rate of 5.7 percent per year over that period, according to estimates by Credit Suisse late last year.
And Southeast Asia account for less than 0.25 percent of the world insurance market share, according to research by Norton Rose, with low insurance penetration in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Indonesian attraction
Easy foreign ownership policy is creating more interest for foreign insurers, analysts said. Malaysia allows foreign insurers to take as much as 70 per cent stake in domestic insurers, while foreign insurers may buy up to 80 percent of an Indonesian insurer.
Indonesia, which has a life insurance penetration of 1.3 percent, is attracting interest from foreign players including Swiss, Japanese and Korean insurers.
Capital market regulator Bapepam-LK Indonesia said it will not change the habits of foreign ownership cap in insurance sector despite the planned central bank move to Cap ownership in banks in the highest 40 percent.
"We see great interest from many foreign investors, even from U.S. pension funds who are keen to invest in this sector given the current regulatory situation and the underpenetrated market," says Julian Noor, executive director of Indonesian General Insurance Association.
Last year's largest property and casualty Japan insurer, MS & AD (8725.T), bought a 50 stake in PT Asuransi Jiwa PCT Sinarmas, the life insurance unit of the Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas, for about 67 billion yen ($ 825 million) in a cup record book value of around 5 times.
"Signs deal last year is proof that Indonesia is very promising prospects of our insurance penetration is low," said Indra Widjaja, president commissioner of PT Sinarmas Multiartha (SMMA.JK) finance arm of the group that controls Asuransi Jiwa Sinarmas.
"Our GDP (per capita) is above $ 3,000 and closing at $ 4,000. This is when all the financial assets such as insurance will see a boom," Widjaja told Reuters.
Insurer and reinsurer acquiring Ltd (ACE.N) said last week that it will buy the Indonesian general insurer PT Asuransi Jaya Proteksi for about $ 130 million, while the PT Panin Financial (PNLF.JK) controlled by powerful families in Indonesia Gunawan financier, is also planning to sell up to 40 percent stake in the business of life insurance. Deal, which is worth about $ 200 million, has attracted Japanese bidders, sources told Reuters earlier this year.
New Participants will be competing against Prudential industry leaders, the Indonesian domestic unit recorded a total premium income of 14.8 trillion Rupiah ($ 1.57 billion) in 2011 - a 47 percent increase from last year. It has 1.4 million policy holders in the country.
Malaysia shake-UP
The auction business CIMB Aviva Malaysia, came after the second-largest insurer Britain laid plans last month to exit non-core markets, a strategy aimed in part at raising money to protect against its euro zone exposure.
The Aviva is selling its 49 percent in the Malaysian joint venture, while CIMB can sell a significant portion of its 51 percent stake, the sources told Reuters.
Auction will be held by Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and CIMB, the sources said. The first bid is a non-binding nature. "They returned to bidders in a week or so," said one source.
The shake-up will help the new buyer control the destiny of the joint venture in a market where life and non-life premiums grew 5.4 percent in 2011 to $ 10.7 billion, according to central bank data. According to Swiss Re, the life insurance premiums are forecast to grow 5.3 percent this year.
A successful sale will also heighten competition between different companies and local players such as the Great Eastern (GELA.SI), which enjoys a position of leadership in Singapore and Malaysia.
Aviva entered Malaysia in June 2007 by investing 500 million of ringgit in insurance joint venture with CIMB, according to CIMB website.
AIA, Aviva, AXA, CIMB, Manulife, Morgan Stanley and Prudential declined to comment. Sun Life, which is a partnership in insurance with CIMB in Indonesia, said it is focused on growing its business both organically and Asia through acquisitions, but declined to comment on this transaction.





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