Munich, Germany-based Allianz SE, Europe's largest insurance company, unveiled the new brand name of its wholly owned insurer in Taiwan yesterday and restated its commitment to the local market.
Formerly known as Allianz President Life Insurance (統一安聯人壽), the firm has been renamed Allianz Taiwan Life Insurance Co (安聯人壽), which is now more than 99.7 percent controlled by the German insurer.
The new name came into effect on Sunday to reflect Allianz's announcement in January that it would acquire all the shareholding held by its previous joint venture partner Uni-President Group (統一集團) for approximately NT$1.7 billion (US$51.9 million).
The insurer is confident that its incorporation under the umbrella of Allianz will create synergy and facilitate expansion.
"Rebranding will allow us to further strengthen financial management, international investment know-how and corporate governance of the company," Bruce Bowers, chairman of Allianz Taiwan Life, said yesterday.
The first-year premiums it collected last year totaled NT$39.09 billion, making it one of the nation's top-six life insurers. For the first five months this year, it had 360,000 effective individual policies and collected NT$25.73 billion in first-year premiums, making it the fourth-largest life insurer, chief executive officer Richard Fung (馮元輝) said.
With closer cooperation with Allianz group, Fung expected to introduce more creative, customer-oriented products.
Although he did not give business projections for the year, Fung said the firm has surpassed its goal by 69 percent during the first four months of the year on growth in all its insurance channels.
In terms of annualized premium performance, its Bancassurance division, which cooperates with more than 40 banks, contributed 55 percent. It also owns 1,200 agencies.
While Bowers viewed Taiwan as a potential market for development, Fung said the company did not rule out the possibility of mergers and acquisitions as small players would have difficulty surviving the fierce competition.
"As long as there are good targets, we'll take [them] into consideration when the price and value are favorable," Fung said.
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) last month raised its insurer financial strength rating and counterparty credit rating on the insurer to "twAA" from "twAA-" with a stable long-term outlook.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six