Hontai Life Insurance Co (宏泰人壽), the nation’s seventh-largest life insurer by premium income, secured a NT$1.07 billion (US$32.5 million) capital injection from Japan’s Taiyo Life Insurance Co yesterday in exchange for an 11 percent stake, company executives said.
“The investment will boost Hontai Life’s capital adequacy while ushering in our first international shareholder as a strategic investor,” company chairman David Jou (周國端) told a media briefing.
However, he did not detail the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) ratio levels of the deal.
Hontai Life will continue to seek opportunities for international strategic partnership, he said.
The partnership between Taiyo Life and Hontai Life would remain strategic in nature, meaning Taiyo Life would not take any board seats, he said.
Hontai Life expected to see a 35 percent growth in premium income this year to NT$30 billion, up from last year’s NT$22.2 billion, including NT$9.7 billion in first-year premiums, Jou said.
Assets were expected to grow to NT$110 billion this year from last year’s NT$82.3 billion, he said.
The company would also develop its insurance-based retirement planning market, he said.
He forecast nearly 90 percent premium growth over five years to NT$42 billion after the firm’s annual premium incomes rose from NT$14 billion to NT$22.2 billion last year.
Founded in 1893, Taiyo Life, a subsidiary of T&D Holding Inc, is the 10th-largest life insurer in Japan with ¥5.75 trillion (US$59 billion) in total assets or a net worth of ¥118.3 billion, at the end of last year.
Hontai Life’s traditional policy sales and its reluctance to tap high-risk structured notes investments were factors in Taiyo Life’s decision to invest, Hontai said.
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