Berjaya Sompo open to buying other insurers
KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Sompo Insurance Bhd is open to the idea of acquiring other insurance companies in the market, said chief executive officer Tan Sek Kee.
Without disclosing details, he said that as an international company, the general insurer had received acquisition proposals.
“However, it is not so easy to acquire another company. We would have to get the approval of the stakeholders because the money comes from them.
“If not, we might have to dilute our stake, which would result in changes in the insurer’s ownership,” he told a press conference.
Berjaya Sompo is 70% owned by Sompo Japan Asia Holdings Pte Ltd while the remaining stake belongs to the Berjaya Group.
Last week, Bank Negara governor Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus called on insurance industry players to consolidate further to shore up their performance and play a more positive role in driving the country’s economy.
She said the domestic insurance scene was too fragmented. Therefore, players need to look at how to strengthen their long-term viability and sustainability, and having greater consolidation is one way of achieving that.
On Berjaya Sompo’s performance, Tan said the company targeted a gross written premium of RM900mil this year, up from RM765mil in 2017. “For 2020, we are looking at RM1bil in gross premiums, and we also plan to position ourselves as one of the top five insurers in Malaysia by 2023,” he added.
The target is in line with Sompo’s partnership with the CIMB Group. Under the Malaysian bancassurance partnership, the group recorded about RM26mil in gross premiums in the first two months of this year.
Berjaya Sompo, with a 4.8% market share currently, is ranked eighth among insurance providers in Malaysia.
Going forward, the company expects to invest heavily in digitalisation to achieve its target.
Thus Berjaya Sompo planned to launch an app by the first quarter of next year, Tan said.
“We opened our 20th branch in the last two weeks and that was the last physical outlet,” he added.