SLI closes as AXA looks to the mainland

SUN Life International shuttered its Hong Kong office on Wednesday, closing its local operations in line with the global strategy of its France-based parent, AXA SA, and the stark economic realities of the region.

By pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy over several decades, AXA has built itself into the second-largest insurance company in the world. In Hong Kong, however, it is already well represented by locally listed insurer National Mutual Asia and its unit-trust arm, National Mutual Funds Management.

'They [AXA] would rather resource National Mutual than our relatively small operation in Hong Kong,' said Peter Adam, Far East sales director of SLI Services, the regional representative of Sun Life International (Isle of Man) and Bristol-based Sun Life Assurance Society.

Sun Life International and Sun Life Assurance Society are not related to Sun Life Assurance Co of Canada.

Until last week, SLI's Hong Kong office sold investment products - primarily whole-of-life insurance policies, endowment policies and offshore investment bonds - exclusively to expatriates and exclusively through independent financial advisers (IFAs).

'We operate in a very small niche market, really,' Mr Adam said. 'We would never look into approaching the local market.' In contrast, parent AXA is actively courting the local market and the mainland, having snagged the one Chinese insurance licence granted to a French company.