Philam in talks with Greenberg firm on Asian expansion plan

C.V. Starr and Co. Inc., a global insurer and financial services provider, is in talks with Philam Life on a potential deal that will help it expand its Asian operations by doing business in the Philippines.

Philam president Rex Mendoza told reporters yesterday that he met with Maurice Greenberg, chair and chief executive officer of Starr, during the latter’s recent visit to Manila.

Mendoza did not give specific details of their discussion, but he said Philam was open to entering a partnership with Starr given the two parties’ complementary traits. While Philam has expertise in life insurance, Starr has extensive non-life insurance operations.

Mendoza said a partnership between the two parties rather than a buyout by Starr of Philam would be more prudent and feasible.

Mendoza said that Starr considered the Philippines attractive given the relationship Greenberg has established with Filipinos.

Greenberg is an honorary chair of the US-Philippines Society, a non-profit organization that seeks to promote ties between the United States and the Philippines in such areas as investments and trade, among others.

Last month, the US-Philippine Society brought executives from various American firms to Manila for them to see business opportunities in the country.

“The Philippines is close to his heart. He knows the people here and he knows that the Philippines is a place where he is known and respected,” Mendoza said when asked why he thinks Greenberg has his eyes on the Philippines for potential business deals through Starr.

Meantime, Mendoza said Philam was aiming for an aggressive expansion this year by beefing up its sales force.

Philam has 6,000 people working in its sales force and aims to increase the figure to at least 9,000 this year.

“We intend to grow our sales force by a big rate. In particular, we want to increase it by more than 50 percent to at least 9,000. We expect 2013 to be a very strong year,” Mendoza said.

Philam’s expansion plans for the year are anchored on expectations of rising demand for investment-linked insurance products.

When insurance-linked instruments were first introduced a few years ago, Mendoza said Philam’s premiums collection had a ratio of 80:20 in favor of traditional insurance products. By the end of 2012, he said, the ratio changed to 60:40.

For this year, he said, premiums from investment-linked products were expected to surpass those for traditional insurance products.

In December, he said, Philam witnessed a surge in demand for investment linked instruments. “If based on the December performance alone, sales were almost mostly [investment-linked],” he said.