Sumitomo Life Insurance Company has paid $90m (£70.8m, €79m) to buy nearly 25% of the issued and outstanding shares in Singapore Life.
The news follows Aberdeen Standard Investments making a $13m minority equity investment in the Singapore-based firm in January 2019.
Digital services and insurtech
“We foresee rapid growth in the life insurance markets in south-east Asia and Singapore in particular,” said Masahiro Hashimoto, president and chief executive of Sumitomo Life.
“By investing in Singapore Life, which has in-depth expertise and know-how in utilising technology, we aim to strengthen our ability in gathering information about the latest trends in Singapore where insurtech is flourishing, as well as the application of technology to actual business operation in order to improve customer ease and achieve greater management efficiency.”
Rapid growth
Singapore Life was launched in June 2017 and was the first local insurer to receive a licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in nearly half a century.
In January 2018, it acquired the business portfolio of Zurich Life Insurance (Singapore).
The book of business comprised around 5,000 policies that had been in run-off since December 2015, when Zurich closed to new business in the city state.
Singapore Life offers term insurance, universal life, critical illness and endowment plans.
The firm’s primary distribution channels are direct-to-consumer and via high net worth brokers and independent financial advisers.
