Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) will sell its asset management subsidiary — Taiwan Life Asset Management Co (台壽保投信) — and focus on the insurance sector, company chairman Chu Ping-yu (朱炳昱) was quoted as saying yesterday.
Media reports cited Chu as saying that, pending a good offer, the life insurer would liquidate its poorly performing asset management arm, which he said had a net worth of between NT$9.5 and NT$9.6 per share.
Chu made the comments in Xiamen, China, at the opening ceremony for King Dragon Life Insurance Co (君龍人壽) — a 50-50 joint venture formed by Taiwan Life and its Chinese partner, Xiamen C&D Corp (廈門建發集團), at an initial investment of 240 million yuan (US$35.1 million).
Chu said the woes of American International Group (AIG) had warned it away from building itself into a full-fledged financial service provider through acquisition of banking subsidiaries.
Instead, Taiwan Life will build strength in the insurance sector, he said.
Chu expressed confidence in the Chinese life insurance market, whose insurance density and penetration he said may only reach an estimated 4 percent in 2010, up from 2.7 percent this year.
He said King Dragon represented the Taiwanese life insurer’s steps toward internationalizing and tapping into the Chinese market.
King Dragon chairman Wu Xiao-min (吳小敏), formerly general manager of Xiamen C&D, vowed to turn a profit within three to five years, the Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday.
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