Dealmaker Erick Thohir eyes insurance after Inter Milan sale

JAKARTA: Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir (pic), whose investments have ranged from newspapers to sports teams in the United States and Europe, is now betting on life insurance.

A group led by Thohir plans to invest two trillion rupiah (US$149mil) to gain full ownership of Asuransi Jiwa Bumiputera, a new unit of century-old mutual insurer AJB Bumiputera 1912, the insurance firm’s statutory manager said.

He prevailed over Zurich Insurance Group AG and Samsung Life Insurance Co, which had also expressed interest in the Jakartabased business, after its owners decided they didn’t want to bring in foreign investors, AJB Bumiputera 1912 Coordinating Statutory Manager Didi Achdijat told reporters in Jakarta.

Asuransi Jiwa Bumiputera aims to start life insurance operations early next year after receiving the investment from Thohir’s consortium, Statutory Manager Adhie Massardi said at the press conference.

AJB Bumiputera 1912, Indonesia’s first national insurer owned by its customers, had been exploring options to raise at least US$1bil from a sale of its business to an overseas investor following a restructuring, people with knowledge of the matter said in October.

“The potential of the insurance industry in Indonesia is huge,” Agus Pramono, head of research at Jakarta-based PT Danareksa Securities, said by phone. “Insurance penetration in the country is still very low. The market leaders here are the foreign insurers, and there are many Japanese and European companies who want to enter Indonesia.”

For Thohir, a 46-year-old media mogul who co-owns the American soccer team D.C. United, venturing into uncharted territory is nothing new. – Bloomberg