The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Cigna to sell businesses in Asia-Pacific, Turkey for $5.75B
“Our agreement with Chubb is another step forward in advancing our strategic focus on our global health services portfolio. We are proud of our success in building these life, accident and supplemental benefits businesses in Asia Pacific and improving the well-being and sense of security of our customers throughout the region.”
Cigna CEO and President David Cordani
BLOOMFIELD — Insurance giant Cigna has agreed to sell several of its businesses in the Asia-Pacific region and Turkey to Chubb for $5.75 billion, as it solidifies its focus on health care.
In an announcement late Thursday, Bloomfield-based Cigna said it would sell its life, accident and supplemental-benefits insurance businesses in South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Thailand, Hong Kong and Indonesia, in addition to its interest in a joint venture in Turkey. These operations generated approximately $3 billion in net premiums written in 2020.
“Our agreement with Chubb is another step forward in advancing our strategic focus on our global health services portfolio,” Cigna CEO and President David Cordani said in a statement. “We are proud of our success in building these life, accident and supplemental benefits businesses in Asia Pacific and improving the well-being and sense of security of our customers throughout the region.”
The deal is expected to be completed in 2022. At that point, Asia-Pacific’s share of Chubb’s global portfolio would increase from approximately $4 billion to $7 billion in premiums and represent approximately 20 percent of the company’s total business, excluding China, according to Chubb officials.
“We have long admired and respected Cigna’s business in Asia including its talented people, innovative products, technical and analytical capabilities, distribution and management,” Chubb CEO and Chairman Evan Greenberg said in a statement. “We know these businesses well as we already have a sizable operation of our own in the region and globally. These businesses produce very stable, high-quality earnings.”
Cigna said it would continue to operate its international health businesses “for the globally mobile population,” as well as local market services in the Middle East, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore and its joint ventures in Australia, China and India.
The Cigna-Chubb deal will follow several other major deals in the AsiaPacific market in the past couple of years. In August, HSBC Holdings said it would acquire French insurer Axa’s Singapore assets for $575 million. Last year, Singapore Life acquired the Singapore business of British insurance firm Aviva for almost $2 billion.
Unrelated to the new agreement, Chubb made several unsuccessful attempts earlier this year to acquire The Hartford, the No. 142 firm on this year’s Fortune 500 list and the second-largest insurance company headquartered in Connecticut after Cigna. Ranking No. 13 on the Fortune list, Cigna is the largest public company headquartered in the state.
Worldwide, Cigna has more than 190 million customer relationships across more than 30 countries and jurisdictions. It employs a total of more than 70,000.