Hong Kong’s FWD Group Holdings is buying US insurer Prudential Financial Inc’s 70% stake in Malaysia’s Gibraltar BSN Life for an undisclosed sum, a deal that will see it make inroads into the Malaysian life insurance market.
FWD says it has agreed to buy the stake from The Prudential Insurance Company of America, a unit of New York-based Prudential Financial.
The other 30% will remain in the hands of Malaysia’s state-owned Bank Simpanan Nasional, FWD says in a statement on February 20.
It expects the deal to be completed in the second quarter of the year, and plans to rebrand the Gibraltar BSN business at a later date.
According to FWD Group Chief Executive Officer Huynh Thanh Phong, the Hong Kong insurer is creating a full-service offering “in a rapidly growing market with huge long-term potential for growth”.
“We’re excited to bring our digitally-enabled products and services to more people in Malaysia. With these strategic developments, we also substantially complete our footprint across key Southeast Asia markets in the tenth anniversary year for FWD Group,” he says in the statement.
FWD, run by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, had US$63.7 billion of assets as of end-2021.
