MSIG Mingtai Insurance Co (明台產險), a local non-life insurance arm of Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group Holdings Inc (MSIG), said yesterday its parent company’s acquisition of two small rivals would soon create synergy at home and globally.
“After MSIG becomes the world’s seventh-largest insurance group, the parent company’s support to our local subsidiary will increase,” Jerro Cheng (鄭振榮), a vice president of Mingtai Insurance, said by telephone yesterday.
He said, however, that any new relocation of personnel or resources would depend on the completion of the parent company’s merger in April.
PLAN
MSIG said it would acquire Mingtai Insurace in 2005 to tap into the local market — an acquisition that it only completed early this year.
MSIG, the second-largest non-life insurer in Japan, said in a press statement yesterday that it had agreed to acquire Aioi Insurance Co and Nissay Dowa General Insurance Co — the fourth and the sixth-largest non-life insurers in Japan respectively — in a share swap.
Starting in April, one share of Aioi Insurance or Nissay Dowa will swap for 0.19 MSIG shares, the company said in the statement, adding that the group would then be renamed MS and AD Insurance Group, while becoming the world’s seventh-largest non-life insurance company.
After the merger is completed, MSIG’s global workforce will increase from 21,000 to 35,000.
SYNERGY
After the expansion, the group intends to create a synergy of between ¥40 billion (US$440.2 million) and ¥50 billion in 2013.
“The expanded group will focus on a strategic management of both its life and non-life insurance businesses as well as financial services to boost revenues while cultivating professionals for our strategic partners,” Toshiaki Egashira, president and CEO of MSIG, said in a statement.
“To our policyholders, the expanded group will continue to place a priority on enhancing the quality of or services to them,” he said.
Cheng said Aioi has a liaison office in Taiwan, but whether the parent company would close that office had yet to be determined.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”