Uni.Asia Capital sells 68% stake in Uni.Asia General for RM374.5m

PETALING JAYA (Feb 19, 2014): DRB-Hicom Bhd's subsidiary Uni.Asia Capital Sdn Bhd (UAC) is selling a 68.09%stake in Uni.Asia General (UAG) Insurance Bhd to Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance Group for US$113 million (RM374.5 million).
DRB-Hicom holds a 51% stake in UAC, which in turn owns UAG. United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd owns the rest of UAC.
The move brings almost to a close negotiations which have gone on more than one-and-a-half years.
The purchase will see Liberty Mutual Insurance's entry into Malaysia's US$4.6 billion non-life insurance market.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed by mid-July 2014.
UAG ranks as the 14th largest non-life insurer in Malaysia with nearly US$143 million in gross written premium.
The company, which specialises in private passenger automobile insurance and fire insurance for homes, features multiple distribution channels through agents, brokers, banks and car dealers.
''The addition of Uni.Asia will allow Liberty Mutual to compete in Malaysia's growing and profitable insurance market while providing a strategic complement to our existing operations in Southeast Asia," said Liberty Mutual Insurance Group chairman and CEO David H. Long in a statement released yesterday.
The acquisition in Malaysia will add to Liberty Mutual Insurance's current international presence in 29 countries spread across Asia, Latin America and Europe through the company's international and global specialty strategic business units.
Liberty Mutual's local business operations abroad offer insurance to individuals and businesses in Thailand, Singapore, India, China (including Hong Kong), Vietnam, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Poland, the UK, Ireland and Russia.
Private passenger automobile insurance is the single largest line of business for Liberty Mutual's International strategic business unit, which insures more than 6.3 million autos worldwide.
Liberty Mutual Insurance is a diversified global insurer and the third largest property and casualty insurer in the US based on 2012 direct premiums written.