Japanese insurers lead Asia share buyback boom in 2024

Japanese life and property and casualty insurers were the runaway leaders in share buyback activity across Asia in 2024, an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis found.

They conducted eight of the region's 10 largest buybacks. Japan Post Holdings Co. Ltd. completed the largest of these with its $1.98 billion share repurchase in March.

In second place was property and casualty insurer MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc., which completed a $1.25 billion buyback in November. Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc. accounted for the third- and fourth-biggest repurchases of $792.7 million and $699.5 million.

Japan's largest P&C insurer by market capitalization, Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., rounded out the top five with a $657.9 million buyback in October, which followed a $449.9 million repurchase in May.

– Use the screener to access buyback data on the S&P Capital IQ Pro platform. – Read about potential M&A activity in the global insurance sector on In Play Today, and a summary of recently announced deals on M&A Replay. – Read about the largest capital market fundraisers in the Asia-Pacific.

Aggregate buyback transaction value was $6.73 billion across 10 transactions, the second highest since 2019. Life and health insurers contributed $3.74 billion of that total, while property and casualty insurers contributed $3.00 billion.