Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer, is interested in buying some of the units that American International Group Inc (AIG) could sell, an official at the German company said.
Munich Re is particularly interested in AIG’s life insurance business in Asia, Ludger Arnoldussen, a member of the Munich-based insurance group’s board of management in charge of the Asia-Pacific, African and German operations, told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday.
AIG plans to sell assets including its life insurance operations in the US, Europe, Latin America and Japan to repay a government loan as four straight quarters of losses tied to the US housing slump burned through its cash at a record rate. The US on Nov. 11 almost doubled the rescue package for the New York-based insurer to US$150 billion.
“We’re only interested in parts that fit exactly into our long-term expansion strategy and at the right price,” Arnoldussen said.
Munich Re’s Dusseldorf-based primary insurance unit Ergo Versicherungsgruppe AG generates about 80 percent of its business within its home country, he said.
Ergo, the fourth-largest German insurer, is seeking to expand into emerging insurance markets such as China to catch up with rivals including AIG that have bigger overseas operations, he said. It has set up joint ventures in India and also operates non-life businesses in South Korea.
Munich Re expects to see on average double-digit increase in reinsurance prices worldwide from Jan. 1, the fastest pace since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Arnoldussen said.
Slumping markets have eroded insurers’ investment returns, weakened their share capital and made it difficult to raise funds, forcing the companies to increasingly turn to reinsurers as a substitute for new capital.
“They simply don’t have the capital strength to support high risk exposure,” Arnoldussen said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “The demand for highly rated reinsurance will increase as the greater risk environment produces a flight to quality.”
Insurers globally have booked more than US$140 billion of credit losses and writedowns since the collapse of the US subprime-mortgage market, Bloomberg said.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS