Nan Shan Life Insurance Co Ltd (南山人壽) yesterday said its board had approved a plan to buy into AIG Taiwan Insurance Co Ltd (美亞產物保險), a Taiwanese subsidiary of American International Group Inc (AIG), for US$158 million (NT$4.92 billion), in a bid to expand its industrial insurance business.
Nan Shan plans to buy the personal insurance and small and medium-sized enterprise insurance businesses from AIG Taiwan, the company said in a statement.
AIG Taiwan is likely to transfer its large-sized enterprise insurance business to a newly established company and is likely to sell its local businesses to Nan Shan. The new company is to be renamed Nan Shan Insurance Co Ltd (南山產險), the statement said.
The acquisition would help Nan Shan enter the industrial insurance business and launch innovative products on the local market by integrating its existing resources and know-how in the life insurance sector, the statement said.
Under the agreement, Nan Shan expects the transaction to be completed by the second half of next year, after approval by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
Nan Shan was once part of AIG Taiwan, but was sold off by its US-based parent company in 2011 to a unit of Ruentex Group (潤泰集團) as part of a plan for AIG to pay a US government bailout debt.
The life insurer last year made a record profit of NT$21.2 billion, with net assets of about NT$3 trillion, after Ruenchen Investment Holding Co (潤成投資控股) took ownership.
As of the end of the first quarter of this year, the number of policy holders in Nan Shan increased to 4.5 million, with effective policies rising to 94 million, data showed.
AIG Taiwan said the firm would focus on commercial insurance, with AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte Ltd — AIG’s subsidiary in Singapore — to launch a branch in Taiwan to operate the remaining business.
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