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Enoch Yiu

ING Group will make Hong Kong its Asian headquarters and springboard for the regional expansion of its insurance business.

The Dutch financial group is the second-largest life insurance company in Asia following its acquisition of the international insurance business of Aetna of the United States.

It is second only to American International Assurance.

ING Asia Pacific chief executive Phillip Shirriff said the US$7.7 billion Aetna takeover in December gave ING a strong foundation for expansion throughout Asia.

The deal made ING the No 1 life insurer in the US and No 2 in Asia in terms of premium income.

The deal had also facilitated ING's entry into new markets, such as the life and pension markets in Malaysia and had enabled it to expand its business in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Before the deal, ING held only a small general-insurance company in Hong Kong called Netherlands Insurance.

It was offering asset management and banking services through ING Investment Management and ING Barings.

'The acquisition completes the product portfolio and enables ING to offer a full range of financial services in Hong Kong and other Asian countries,' Mr Shirriff said.

To reflect the new ownership, Aenta Life will be renamed ING Life Insurance at the end of this month.

According to Mr Shirriff, ING will focus on six Asian markets: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Australia.

'Our mission is to become one of the top three players in each of these markets,' he said.

It also plans to expand in China and India, where a process of liberalisation is opening the insurance markets to foreign players.

ING has also obtained a licence to set up a life insurance joint venture in China.

Aetna has had a joint-venture life insurance company in Shanghai for four years.

ING will also expand into Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, although these markets will not be the group's priority.

Mr Shirriff was optimistic about the growth prospects of the Asian insurance sector.

'The savings rate in Asian countries is higher than in Western countries. This means there is huge potential for savings schemes and insurance products,' Mr Shirriff said.

He said ING would expand through organic growth and acquisition but given it has only just taken over Aetna, it will this year focus on consolidating the two groups rather than buying more insurance companies, Mr Shirriff said.

ING has total assets of more than US$500 billion, writes premium income of US$27 billion and has a capitalisation of about US$60 billion.



ING tags SAR as Asian headquarters