Mirae Asset Life formalizes bid to acquire domestic underdog

By Park Sae-jin Posted : September 9, 2016, 09:55 Updated : September 9, 2016, 09:55
 

[Namkung Jinwoong = timeid@]



Mirae Asset Life Insurance Co. formalized its bid to acquire a domestic underdog Friday in an intensifying turf war among South Korean insurers to increase their clout in South Korea's saturated insurance market.

Mirae Asset, a financial arm of the powerful Mirae Asset Financial Group, said it has presented its bid before the deadline for bidding Thursday to Goldman Sachs which leads the sale of PCA Life Insurance Co.

The names of other bidders were not revealed, but market watchers speculated Chinese and other foreign investors have probably joined the race.

PCA Life Insurance was established in 1990 as a subsidiary of Prudential Corporation Holdings. The minor insurer with its assets estimated at 5.2 trillion won (4.73 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 is the country's sixth largest life insurer with its total assets standing at more than 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
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