UPDATE: Meifu To Pay Over NT$1 Billion For Aegon's Taiwan Operating-Source
April 22 2009 - 1:17AM
Dow Jones News
Taiwan's Meifu Property Development Group will pay more than
NT$1 billion (US$29.5 million) for Dutch insurer Aegon NV's (AEG)
operation on the island, a person familiar with the transaction
told Dow Jones Newswires on Wednesday.
"The announcement will come as early as later today," said the
person, who declined to be named.
The person said the "headline number" of the deal's value will
be around NT$3 billion, but the actual amount that Taipei-based
Meifu pays will be more than NT$1 billion after "some adjustments."
He didn't elaborate.
In recent months, several European insurers have been exiting
Taiwan or scaling down their operations on the island, one of the
world's most saturated insurance markets. The insurers are
struggling to deliver the high returns promised to policyholders as
they seek to reduce their capital burden.
The U.K.'s Prudential PLC is selling its Taiwan agency
distribution operations and agency force to the island's China Life
Insurance Co., and ING Groep NV sold its Taiwan life-insurance unit
to Fubon Financial Holding Co. in February.
Aegon's Taiwan operation, which has been unprofitable for the
past three years, had total assets of NT$187.2 billion and a net
worth of NT$4.8 billion at the end of 2008, said Annie Kao, Aegon's
public-relations director in Taiwan.
Aegon Taiwan President James H.C. Liu and Meifu Chairman Tom
Peng Cheng-hao couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
-By Perris Lee Choon Siong, Dow Jones Newswires;
+8862-2502-2557; perris.lee@dowjones.com