NatMut dives deeper into Asia
National Mutual has indicated it will continue to expand rapidly in Asia, following its acquisition of a controlling interest in the Japan-based life company Nippon Dantai.
National Mutual has indicated it will continue to expand rapidly in Asia, following its acquisition of a controlling interest in the Japan-based life company Nippon Dantai.
National Mutual Holdings international business chief executive Andy Penn says Asia is still an attractive proposition for National Mutual Holdings. More than half of the company's 1998/99 half-year operating profits were from its Asian business interests.
"The underlying characteristics which got us so excited about Asia in the late 80s and early 90s are still there," he says.
These factors include high savings rates, low insurance penetration, good profit margins and strong growth prospects, some of the positive consequences to come out of the Asian crisis, Penn says.
"There has been a loosening of foreign investment restrictions and the loosening of micro-regulations," he says.
As a result of a loosening of foreign investment restrictions, the AXA Group announced it has made a conditional offer for the purchase of a controlling interest in Japan’s 13th largest life office, Nippon Dantai. Nippon Dantai currently holds two per cent of the Japanese life insurance market, which is the largest market in the world, representing about one third of premiums sold worldwide.
The offer will see AXA National Mutual Holdings, the Asia Pacific member of the wider AXA group, directly invest up to Yen 200 billion and hold about 95 per cent of the issued shares of the yet to be formed holding company, AXA Nichidan Insurance.
“The acquisition will more than double the AXA Group’s existing life insurance premiums in the Asia Pacific region,” Penn says.
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Jason Spits
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