Insurance Australia Group has confirmed rumors that it plans to purchase Malaysia’s Kurnia Insurans.
In a statement released today, the Australian insurance giant announced that it’s 49% owned associate AmG Insurance had submitted a proposal to buy Kurnia Insurans, the principle general insurance business of Kurnia Asia Berhad.
If completed, the deal would result in the merged AmG and Kurnia business acquiring the leading position in the Malaysian motor insurance market.
While IAG did not release a price for the deal, they said that it would fund it’s share of the purchase price from internal resources and that the deal would increase it’s capital position from 1.45 to 1.5 times the required capital amount.
This figure takes into account all of IAG’s recent business. Just last week the insurers announced the decision to acquire struggling Nez Zealand insurer AMI for NZD380 million (GBP185 million), and in August it said it would take a 20% stake in China’s Bohai Property Insurance for around USD107 million (GBP68.7 million).
IAG’s gross written premium today stands at AUD8 billion (GBP5.1 billion). Their Asian businesses which include Thailand, Malaysia, China and India, account for around AUD430 million of this.
