PHILIPPINES – Allianz SE, a European financial services company that offers products and solutions in insurance and asset management, has purchased 51% of PNB Life Insurance, the Philippine National Bank (PNB) has disclosed.
In a letter to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Philippine National Bank (PSE:PNB) said Allianz SE bought 12,750 shares of stock of PNB Life Insurance. The sale represents 51% of the issued and outstanding capital stock of PNB Life.
Financial details of the transaction were not immediately disclosed.
PNB Life is already practicing bancassurance, posting premium income of Php4.6 billion in 2014. The chunk of its premium income last year came from bancassurance sales.
Allianz and five other foreign financial institutions have expressed interest in forming alliance or a joint venture bancassurance with PNB.
Aside from Allianz of Germany, other foreign firms interested in PNB Life Insurance were Fubon Life of Taiwan, Samsung Life of Korea, Zurich Life of Switzerland, a Japanese and a Malaysian insurer.
Emmanual M. Dooc, commissioner of the Insurance Commission (IC), earlier confirmed PNB is the target of several foreign players wanting to bring its insurance business via the bancassurance route, either through a joint venture or acquisition.
“It is the only bank of significant size and financial stability that will make sense for a foreign player to join forces,” Dooc said, confirming the attention on PNB.
PNB has 662 domestic branches and 76 overseas branches, including 900 automated teller machines (ATMs) and several representative offices overseas. – BusinessNewsAsia.com