First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) said yesterday it wasn’t aware of Aviva PLC’s plan to withdraw from Taiwan by selling its 49 percent stake in First-Aviva Life Insurance Co (第一英傑華人壽) after the British insurer said on Tuesday it was pulling out because it didn’t expect to meet group financial targets.
“This is all media speculation. We haven’t officially heard anything from them [Aviva],” Chou Po-chiao (周伯蕉), acting spokesman for First Financial, said by telephone, adding that it was only one-sided information from the British insurer.
The two-year-old First-Aviva Life Insurance, a joint venture in which First Financial holds a 51 percent stake, also refused to comment, saying it was “a dispute between shareholders.”
“We cannot represent the Aviva headquarters in making a comment on the matter as we are just a subsidiary of the British insurer in Taiwan,” a manager at First-Aviva Life Insurance said by telephone.
On Tuesday, Aviva chief executive Andrew Moss said in a statement that the company intended to withdraw from Taiwan and focus on more profitable markets after the British insurer released its earnings in the first nine months.
“In Asia-Pacific, we will continue to pursue franchise growth through organic investment, focusing on our key markets, such as China and India, and exiting low return markets, such as Taiwan,” Moss said in the statement.
However, First-Aviva Life told the Taipei Times that the statement was only an expression of Aviva’s “intention,” which means it was not written in stone yet.
“It is hard to predict when that will happen,” it added.
Even if Aviva decided to sell its stake, it needs to reach a consensus with First Financial and obtain regulatory approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission before it can change the shareholding structure, First-Aviva Life said.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported in September that First-Aviva Life had incurred about NT$700 million (US$21.85 million) in losses and that the two partners had disagreed over its products and sales strategy.
The commission said yesterday it had not received official notice from Aviva about its intention to exit Taiwan and thus would not comment on the matter.
It added, however, that it hoped any financially healthy foreign companies would continue their business in Taiwan.
“Taiwan has a very good [insurance] market, which can be further explored,” a commission official said by telephone.
If the British insurer were to pull out of Taiwan, the rights of policyholders must be protected, the official said.
Aviva is the largest insurer in the UK and the sixth-biggest in the world. It signed an agreement with First Financial to form First-Aviva Life in 2007.
The British insurer had hoped that its entry into Taiwan would extend its leading position in global bancassurance, a combination of banking and insurance services.
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