[Courtesy of Mirae Asset Life Insurance]
A turf war has intensified in South Korea's insurance market after a financial arm of the powerful Mirae Asset Financial Group seeks to absorb a domestic underdog.
Mirae Asset Life Insurance Co. said Wednesday it was interested in the acquisition of PCA Life Insurance Co. "We are seeking to take over PGA Life Insurance," it said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, adding a "concrete" plan has yet to come.
Goldman Sachs leads the sale of PCA Life Insurance, which was established in 1990 as a subsidiary of Prudential Corporation Holdings. The minor insurer with its assets estimated at 5.2 trillion won (4.6 billion US dollars) posted a net profit of 21.6 billion won last year, compared to 17.4 billion won a year earlier.
Mirae Asset Life Insurance is the country's sixth largest life insurer with its total assets standing at 27 trillion won. So far, its parent group has stepped up the acquisition of overseas assets.
South Korea's insurance market has been engulfed in a series of mergers and acquisitions since China's Anbang Insurance Group acquired Tongyang Life Insurance last year.
Anbang has actively purchased overseas assets under an aggressive expansionist campaign by its chairman Wu Xiaohui, married to a granddaughter of Deng Xiaoping.
In April, Anbang purchased the South Korean operations of Germany's insurance giant Allianz for $3.0 million. The purchase drew controversy for a cheap buyout of the 11th largest insurer with assets surpassing 16 trillion won.
With Anbang's foray into South Korea, other Chinese investors have come to buy domestic financial units.
There has been market speculation that a Chinese buyer may acquire ING Life Korea, the country's fifth-largest life insurer by assets, which was taken over by MBK Partners in 2013 for $1.6 billion.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
