Merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the reinsurance market in the Asia Pacific (APac)region will pick up pace in 2021, according to Clyde & Co Hong Kong partner Joyce Chan. It is also reported that investor’s appetite will bounce back in the Asia Pacific at a much faster rate when compared to other regions. Joyce Chan believes the reinsurance market in the region has not been impacted by Covid-19 as severely as Europe or the Americas.
She told the media, “Of course, these transactions would have been negotiated and agreed back in 2019, pre-COVID-19, but the fact they completed suggests an underlying degree of confidence.”
Despite the pandemic, the region witnessed a rise in M&A activities in the reinsurance market in the first half of 2020 with 38 deals completed during the period.
According to the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM), the Malaysian life insurance industry rebounded strongly in the third quarter of this year. The sector registered a 44 percent rise in premiums to reach $717 million. The growth is attributed to an improvement in investment-linked business, which doubled from MYR737.72 million in the second quarter of 2020 to MYR1.43 billion in the third quarter of 2020.
The Life Insurance Association (LIA) announced last month that the sector recorded a total of S$2.99 billion in weighted new business premiums for the third quarter of this year, a decline of 2 percent when compared to the same period in 2019.
A GlobalData report published last month revealed that Vietnam’s general insurance industry to grow by 3.4 percent in 2020, down from the 13.6 percent of growth registered in the previous year.