Zurich Insurance Group ended 2017 with a huge acquisition and is already in talks to kick off the new year with another major move in the region.
In purchasing ANZ’s Australian life insurance business for A$2.85 billion ($2.14 billion) the Swiss firm became the largest retail life insurer down under. Now the firm is looking north to the giant Chinese life insurance market and is in talks to find a joint venture partner in the hugely populated and under insured nation.
In November last year China’s deputy finance minister Zhu Guangyao said his country would ease restrictions on foreign ownership stakes in the financial sector stating the sector, including the insurance industry, will be almost entirely open to foreign players in the next five years.
Room to Grow in Asia
For the insurer a move into the massive Chinese market would be a timely return. In 2013 the company left China after selling its 20 percent stake in New China Life Insurance for for $943 million.
According to Jack Howell CEO Asia Pacific at Zurich, the insurer is under-represented across the region which he sees as a major engine for growth for the firm. «We have ambitions to grow in mainland China, which is a very big market with huge business opportunities,» Howell, told the «South China Morning Post» in an exclusive interview.
For now Zurich manages a wholly owned general insurance company, Zurich General Insurance Company (China), which offers property, corporate and other commercial risk insurance.
