S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of insurance news stories and more published throughout the week. Please note that some entries may have links to third-party sources that may require a subscription.
AIA revises CBA deal, posts 156% YOY growth in H1 net profit
* Hong Kong-based insurer AIA Group Ltd. has revised agreements with Commonwealth Bank of Australia to acquire the lender's Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd. unit. Under the revised agreement, AIA will pay approximately A$2.38 billion instead of the A$3.8 billion previously agreed upon.
* AIA's net profit for the first half rose 156% year over year on a constant exchange rates basis to US$3.86 billion from US$1.66 billion in the prior-year period. The increase reflects positive short-term fluctuations of US$1.17 billion from equities and real estate, compared with negative movements of US$675 million in the first half of 2018.
Deals elsewhere in Asia-Pacific
* HSBC Holdings PLC is looking at making a bid for the Asian operations that Aviva PLC might off-load, Bloomberg News reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The news comes a few days after Aviva confirmed that it is evaluating strategic options for its Asian businesses as CEO Maurice Tulloch reviews the U.K. insurer's strategy.
* Japan's Taiyo Life Insurance Co. will acquire 35% of Myanmar-based Capital Life Insurance Ltd.'s shares for about ¥760.0 million, Nikkei Asian Review reported. The transaction would convert Capital Life into a joint venture affiliate of the Japanese insurer.
* Thai Life Insurance PCL will acquire a 35% stake in Myanmar's Citizen Business Insurance in a deal that would make the Thai company the first ASEAN insurer to venture into Myanmar, Bangkok Post reported, citing a statement.
In other news
* Aflac Inc. is expecting a decline of up to 50% in Japan Post group channel sales for the rest of 2019, compared to a "very strong" 2018, following media reports that Japan Post Co. Ltd. improperly sold approximately 104,000 Aflac-issued insurance policies. The U.S.-based insurer also projects that the anticipated decline will cause total third sector and first sector protection sales to be down in the mid-teens for 2019.
* China Life Insurance Co. Ltd.'s first-half net profit attributable to equity holders of the company jumped 128.9% to 37.60 billion yuan from 16.42 billion yuan a year earlier. The increase was attributed mainly to an increase in gross investment income and the impact from the new policy on pretax deduction of underwriting and policy acquisition costs.
* Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. shrank its agent force in the first half, the first cut in at least four years, as China's biggest life insurer by premiums increased the use of technology in customer-facing processes.
