HSBC’s insurance arm plans to buy the Singapore insurance business of its French rival AXA for US$575 million as it strengthens its focus on growth opportunities in Asia, particularly among the region’s wealthy clients . The UK financial group is adding the Southeast Asian city state’s eighth largest life insurer and fifth biggest property and casualty insurer, that is also a major player in group health insurance. The unit had net assets of US$474 million, gross written premiums of US$739 million and pre-tax profit of US$23 million in 2020. “This strategic investment is a key milestone for HSBC Life to materially scale up, grow and diversify our insurance and wealth business in Singapore,” Nuno Matos, the chief executive of HSBC’s Wealth and Personal Banking business, said in a statement on Monday. The purchase will put the group in a leading position in health and employee benefits and quicken its expansion in wealth and health planning, he added. Combining AXA’s Singapore operations with its existing business there will give it more than 600,000 policies in force covering life, health and property and casualty in Singapore, the company said. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close by the fourth quarter. For AXA, the sale is the latest move in its efforts to consolidate its footprint in Asia following a series of business reorganisations. It agreed to sell its insurance operations in Malaysia to Generali in June and combine its Indian non-life operations with ICICI Lombard in August 2020. “We are focusing on our core markets where we have the size [and] presence in the right business segments and a strong potential to grow,” Gordon Watson, AXA’s CEO for Asia and Africa, said in a statement . “We have in Asia a unique set of assets across established and high-potential markets.” HSBC , the biggest of Hong Kong’s three currency-issuing banks, is making a big bet on wealth management in Asia, investing US$3.5 billion and hiring more than 5,000 people in its wealth operations over the next five years. Singapore, in addition to Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area , is an important pillar of that strategy. Insurance is a significant part of its wealth strategy, according to Bryce Johns, the global CEO for HSBC Life and insurance partnerships. The AXA transaction adds employee benefits and health coverage to its product mix in Singapore, giving it additional products to market to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their employees, Johns said. It also gives HSBC’s insurance arm access to a large prime agency base, which will help it access customers outside the bank. “This accelerated transaction really plays into that wheelhouse. We see health and wealth quite intertwined,” Johns added. “As a group, we’re quite uniquely positioned now to play across the full spectrum of client needs, whether you’re an individual, an SME or corporate.”