INSULAR Life (InLife) the country’s largest Filipino-owned life insurance company is entering into a joint venture agreement with Oona Philippines Holding Corporation for its general insurance subsidiary, Mapfre Insular Insurance Corporation (MIIC).
Oona Philippines is a subsidiary of Oona Singapore, which aims to become the pre-eminent digital general insurance platform in Southeast Asia. Oona Singapore is backed by Warburg-Pincus (WP), a global private equity firm and a leading global growth investor with more than $80 billion in assets under management. WP has a solid track record in investing in and creating value for companies in the insurance sector.
InLife’s erstwhile partner in MIIC, Mapfre Internacional SA of Spain (Mapfre), has decided to exit its business interests in Asia, including the Philippines. With Mapfre’s exit, InLife is increasing its stake in MIIC from 25 percent to 40 percent, while Oona shall acquire the remaining 60 percent stake in MIIC.
“We attracted a significant investor for our non-life businesses. InLife’s focused execution, strong and tested brand, and wide network were attractions to Oona. The joint venture will allow for our current and future distribution channels to scale up and provide stronger and better general insurance products delivered using technology,” InLife Executive Chairperson Nina Aguas said.
“InLife is leveraging Oona's capability-building and value-creation capacity to strengthen our reach and allow both to increase relevance and cooperation. The complementary strengths of both companies will propel both companies to leadership positions in providing relevant and timely solutions to the current and evolving needs of our markets. This will give us more arsenal to pursue our growth trajectory for our non-life businesses as we become stronger players in the digital economy,” Aguas added.
Abhisek Bhatia, Group CEO of Oona, said “We are delighted to partner with InLife because together we will build the leading digital general insurer in the country. Our shared values of customer first and digital enablement will drive future growth for the business.”
According to Aguas, this joint venture was presented to the Insurance Commission and it has received overwhelming positive feedback from them. Oona and InLife are now in the process of completing and submitting all the regulatory requirements for approval by the Insurance Commission. (PR)