Insular Life (InLife) and Singapore-headquartered Oona Insurance Group (Oona) have announced jointly that they are entering into an agreement, with InLife selling its 40% stake in their non-life insurance joint venture, Oona Insular Insurance Corporation (Oona Philippines), making it Oona's fully owned subsidiary.
InLife is the first and largest Filipino life insurance company in the country. Oona Insurance which offers a digital general insurance platform for Southeast Asia. It is focused on building the most transformative and customer-centric insurer across the region. Set up in 2021, it has established a presence in Indonesia and the Philippines and is fully backed by a $350m equity commitment from Warburg Pincus.
Following the completion of the deal, Oona Philippines and Insular Life will continue their cooperation arrangements to cross-sell insurance products in the Philippines.
The agreement is expected to further boost Oona Philippines’ status in the general insurance industry, building upon the series of innovations and services that it has brought to the Philippine market since it set up shop in the country last year.
InLife, on the other hand, will focus on its core life insurance and healthcare business to sustain the momentum it has achieved in the last couple of years. InLife plans to support its scale and innovation efforts in its operations and distribution channels in its bid to move further up the rankings.
“As InLife moves forward to achieve accelerated growth and continue in its journey to provide customer service excellence through digital transformation and innovation, we will continue to support Oona’s plan to strengthen its presence in the Philippines,” said Ms Nina D Aguas, Insular Life’s executive chairperson.
Commenting on the acquisition, Mr Abhishek Bhatia, founder and CEO of the Oona Insurance group, said, “We are very optimistic and believe this move will help us push for higher growth as we position ourselves to be a major player in the Philippines’ non-life insurance market.”
Source: asiainsurancereview.com