Singlife teams up with AEV, Di-Firm in insurance venture
Foreign insurer Singapore Life Private Ltd. (Singlife) has entered into the Philippine life insurance industry via a partnership with conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), seeking to “disrupt” the protection space with its digital offering.
They formed a new joint venture firm called Singlife Philippines, 65 percent of which is owned by Singlife while partners Di-Firm and AEV own 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively.Using a digital platform, the new company seeks to make insurance and financial products more accessible to Filipinos nationwide, AEV said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
“With Singlife’s unique fintech expertise in digitalizing life insurance offers and with AEV’s strategic position across industries in the local market, Singlife Philippines is poised to claim its share in the local life insurance market,” the disclosure said.
Di-Firm, the other party to this venture, is a group of Filipino entrepreneurs with extensive experience in the mutual fund and insurance businesses.
In the Philippines, the life insurance market has grown significantly over the past five years with total premium income growing by 9 percent a year and sales of new policies growing at around 15 percent per year, based on data from the Philippine Insurance Commission.
However, the penetration of individual life insurance is still low at around 6 percent of the insurable market. This is projected to increase to 12-18 percent in the medium-term, fueled by an emerging segment of people purchasing policies for the first time.
Singlife Philippines is targeting to serve people between 25 to 50 years old, with net income between P25,000 to P50,000 per month and a preference for online and mobile services. “For this new generation of mobile-first consumers already booking rides and purchasing everyday goods online, Singlife Philippines believes it can also fulfill their financial planning needs through a mobile app,” the disclosure said.
Singlife Philippines still needs to get a license to sell protection products in the Philippines.Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said: “They submitted their application with complete documents just last week. But there will still be a pre-licensing examination, meaning verification of what they submitted.”
As such, Funa said the license may be given by around January of the coming year.
For AEV, this investment expands its financial services businesses. AEV is the controlling shareholder of Union Bank of the Philippines, which has its own bancassurance partnership with local life insurer Insular Life. —Reports from Doris Dumlao-Abadilla and Ben O. De Vera INQ
