, Australia

Dai-ichi Life Insurance buys life unit of Australia's Suncorp for $540m

Australia represents an attractive market for Japanese insurers amidst shrinking markets back home.

Reuters reports that Australia’s Suncorp Group is selling its life insurance division to Dai-ichi Life Holdings for $540m (AU$725m) in a deal that fortifies the market dominance of the Japanese firm in Australia’s insurance market after it spent $891.17m (AU$1.2b) in 2011 to buy out Australia’s then second largest life insurer TAL.

Regional insurers are steadily growing their footholds in Australia amidst shrinking markets back home and the lure of Australia’s heated population growth.

Suncorp’s sale is the latest in a list of life insurance divestments by Australian firms as insurers grapple with tighter capital regulations like their banking counterparts.

Nippon Life Insurance Co bought most of Australia’s No. 3 life insurer, National Australia Bank’s MLC unit, in 2015 whilst Zurich Insurance Group AG and Hong Kong-based AIA Group Ltd (1299.HK) also spent billions buying local operations from ANZ Bank and Commonwealth Bank respectively.

Here’s more from Reuters:

Join Insurance Asia community
Since you're here...

...there are many ways you can work with us to advertise your company and connect to your customers. Our team can help you dight and create an advertising campaign, in print and digital, on this website and in print magazine.

We can also organize a real life or digital event for you and find thought leader speakers as well as industry leaders, who could be your potential partners, to join the event. We also run some awards programmes which give you an opportunity to be recognized for your achievements during the year and you can join this as a participant or a sponsor.

Let us help you drive your business forward with a good partnership!

Exclusives

Indonesia enters era of digital insurance distribution
Industry executives at Insurance Asia Forum 2024 push the digital mindset in developing an efficient ecosystem.
Indonesia needs a little tech to boost insurance penetration
When compared to GDP, insurance penetration in Indonesia is 1.4%, which is low relative to ASEAN.
How Grandtag secures the bag for Asia’s richest
Grandtag Financial’s regional CEO spills how ‘jumbo life insurance’ attracts UHNWIs in Asia.