Insurance firms’ merger okayed

All is set for the merger of National Reinsurance Corp. and Universal Malayan Reinsurance Corp. (UMRE) after their respective boards gave their go signal to join forces to make it at par with other reinsurance firms in Southeast Asia.

Once the merger is completed, the surviving entity (National Re) will have an asset base of P5.5 billion and an equity base of P3 billion.

Around 87 percent of National Re’s stockholders voted in favor of the merger while 99 percent of UMRe’s stockholders gave their approval to the union.

National Re is owned by the Armed Forces of the Philippines General Insurance Corp., Liberty Insurance Corp., Philam Insurance Corp., Fortune Guarantee Corp. and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) as the largest single shareholder.

UMRe, on the other hand, is the surviving entity of an earlier merger between Universal Reinsurance Corp. and Malayan Reinsurance Corp., a joint venture between BPI and the Malayan Group of Insurance Companies.

"The merger has a very strong strategic rationale — to create the dominant Philippine reinsurance entity with greater underwriting capacity to service the requirements of domestic life and non-life insurance companies," the two companies said in a joint statement.

"The merger also builds added strength for likely strategic and competitive challenges in the local and ASEAN markets due to increasing market liberalization and greater cross-border business," the statement further said.

The transaction also provides the opportunity to realize significant cost synergies and overall efficiency and thus present beneficial consequences to all shareholders of National Re and UMRe.