Latest news with #DaiichiLife
Japan Times
01-08-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan's Dai-ichi Life eyes M&A in Southeast Asia for growth
Dai-ichi Life Holdings is considering mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in Southeast Asia as part of its plan to expand overseas, eyeing a growing but increasingly crowded market. Japan's biggest listed life insurer is looking at the Philippines and Malaysia as emerging markets that offer business opportunities as more households ascend to middle class, said Brett Clark, senior managing executive officer in charge of the firm's Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan. Dai-ichi Life is also interested in expanding its customer base in Singapore, which has a lucrative market serving high net worth individuals but is also highly competitive, he said in an interview. "The whole of Asia Pacific is a competitive market and so we're not complacent,' Clark said. "We would prefer to avoid small and subscale positions in many markets and would rather have larger and scaled positions in fewer markets.' Major Japanese life insurers are seeking to expand profits from overseas operations, as a declining birth rate and an aging population in the home market limit potential for growth. But the biggest insurance markets in the United States and Europe are already crowded, and competition is heating up in Asia, particularly in developed economies like Singapore. Sumitomo Life Insurance, for one, boosted its presence in the city state in a big way last year, making Singapore Life a wholly owned subsidiary. Dai-ichi Life plans to generate about half of its group adjusted profit from overseas life insurance operations in the fiscal year ending March 2031, with half of that coming from the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan. The firm aims to increase profit from the region to ¥150 billion ($1 billion) from ¥57.6 billion over the period. Group adjusted profit is used to calculate shareholder returns, adjusting net income for accounting gains and losses. "If we could add an operating unit in Singapore or Malaysia or the Philippines, that would be ideal for us sometime over the next few years,' Clark said. Potential measures include investments in local insurers, and it's also considering asset management firms as M&A targets, he said. Dai-ichi Life already has operations in Australia, India and some Southeast Asian markets including Vietnam. Clark, in fact, was an executive at Tower Australia Group when Dai-ichi acquired it in 2011.
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Japan's Dai-ichi Life Eyes M&A in Southeast Asia for Growth
(Bloomberg) -- Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc. is considering mergers and acquisitions in Southeast Asia as part of its plan to expand overseas, eyeing a growing but increasingly crowded market. The World's Data Center Capital Has Residents Surrounded An Abandoned Art-Deco Landmark in Buffalo Awaits Revival We Should All Be Biking Along the Beach Budapest's Most Historic Site Gets a Controversial Rebuild San Francisco in Talks With Vanderbilt for Downtown Campus Japan's biggest listed life insurer is looking at the Philippines and Malaysia as emerging markets that offer business opportunities as more households ascend to middle class, said Brett Clark, Senior Managing Executive Officer in charge of the firm's Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan. Dai-ichi Life is also interested in expanding its customer base in Singapore, which has a lucrative market serving high net worth individuals but is also highly competitive, he said in an interview. 'The whole of Asia Pacific is a competitive market and so we're not complacent,' Clark said. 'We would prefer to avoid small and subscale positions in many markets and would rather have larger and scaled positions in fewer markets.' Major Japanese life insurers are seeking to expand profits from overseas operations, as a declining birth rate and an aging population in the home market limit potential for growth. But the biggest insurance markets in the US and Europe are already crowded, and competition is heating up in Asia, particularly in developed economies like Singapore. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co., for one, boosted its presence in the city state in a big way last year, making Singapore Life Holdings Pte a wholly owned subsidiary. Dai-ichi Life plans to generate about half of its group adjusted profit from overseas life insurance operations in the fiscal year ending March 2031, with half of that coming from the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan. The firm aims to increase profit from the region to ¥150 billion ($1 billion) from ¥57.6 billion over the period. Group adjusted profit is used to calculate shareholder returns, adjusting net income for accounting gains and losses. 'If we could add an operating unit in Singapore or Malaysia or the Philippines, that would be ideal for us sometime over the next few years,' Clark said. Potential measures include investments in local insurers, and it's also considering asset management firms as M&A targets, he said. Dai-ichi Life already has operations in Australia, India, and some Southeast Asian markets including Vietnam. Clark, in fact, was an executive at Tower Australia Group Ltd. when Dai-ichi acquired it in 2011. (Updates with a chart and a photo of Clark. An earlier version of this story corrected the insurer's profit goal figures.) Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Russia Builds a New Web Around Kremlin's Handpicked Super App Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Cage-Free Eggs Are Booming in the US, Despite Cost and Trump's Efforts ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Japan Times
01-07-2025
- Automotive
- Japan Times
Large Japanese companies surprisingly optimistic as U.S. tariffs bite
Large Japanese businesses maintained optimism overall in the second quarter even as the United States implemented a range of new tariffs. According to the Bank of Japan's quarterly tankan survey, released Tuesday, the business sentiment index for large manufacturers improved to 13, up from 12 in the first quarter. The latest figure exceeded the average forecast of 10 by 15 think tanks. This was the first tankan survey conducted after U.S. President Donald Trump introduced 10% "reciprocal" tariffs and 25% tariffs on vehicles in April. Confidence among large companies in the auto industry, which is the backbone of the Japanese economy, dropped to 8 from 13 in the previous survey. "Although the tariff situation is still up in the air, the survey suggests there's a growing belief that if reciprocal tariffs stay at 10%, industries except for the auto sector wouldn't face major impacts," Koichi Fujishiro, an economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, wrote in a report on Tuesday. The tankan survey asks companies whether business conditions are 'favorable,' 'not so favorable" or 'unfavorable." Positive readings mean those answering "favorable" have outnumbered companies answering "unfavorable." As more than 99% of companies polled normally respond to the questionnaire, the data is considered to be of a very high quality and an accurate reflection of the situation on the ground. The latest survey polled nearly 9,000 companies between May 28 and June 30. The tankan shows small and medium-size manufacturers were not as optimistic as larger companies. The reading for medium-size manufacturers in the second quarter dropped to 10 from 11, while the figure for smaller companies declined to 1 from 2. Trade Minister Yoji Muto said at a news conference on Tuesday that it is still hard to gauge the impact of the auto tariffs, but some feedback to consultation desks set up by the ministry suggests that the tariffs have already affected some auto-related companies. Japan and the United States have made no significant progress in tariff negotiations despite months of dialogue. Japan is asking the U.S. to remove or lower the auto tariffs, but Trump appears to be unwilling to do so. The tankan showed that sentiment among large nonmanufacturers met the average forecast of 34, down slightly from 35 in the first quarter. Still, the figure is the highest in more than three decades. Strong confidence at nonmanufacturing companies is helped by booming inbound tourism, robust investment related to digital transformation, high construction demand and a recovery in consumption, Fujishiro pointed out. The tankan also indicates that the labor shortages are still serious, so more companies will be under pressure to offer higher wages to attract employees, which could justify a rate increase by the BOJ, Fujishiro added, saying that the bank may raise rates this month. The BOJ is scheduled to have a two-day policy meeting on July 30 and July 31. A Bloomberg survey of 53 BOJ watchers last month showed that nearly half of those surveyed believed that the bank will not raise rates this year given that it will take time to gauge the impact of U.S. tariffs.
Bloomberg
01-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Dai-ichi Life, Marubeni Aim to Hold $21 Billion in Real Estate
Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc. said that it aims to hold ¥3 trillion ($21 billion) in real estate assets with Marubeni Corp. by the fiscal year starting April 2030 through the integration of their property businesses, making it among Japan's biggest investors in the sector. The new company plans to accelerate the growth of its listed real estate investment trust business and establish multiple private funds with Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. as the core investor, spending ¥400 billion, a Dai-ichi spokesperson said.
CNA
30-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
Japan's Dai-ichi Life could double investment target to at least $4 billion
TOKYO :Japan's Dai-ichi Life could double its strategic investment target to at least 600 billion yen ($4.17 billion) in its next medium-term management plan, the life insurer's CEO said, as the company looks to expand internationally. Dai-ichi expects to accelerate its overseas investments after it acquired 15 per cent of UK insurer and asset manager M&G for around 160 billion yen in May, CEO Tetsuya Kikuta told Reuters in an interview. The firm joins a host of Japanese financial institutions spending big on overseas acquisitions in search of growth as Japan's domestic market shrinks. British firm Legal & General announced a tie-up with Meiji Yasuda in February, while Deutsche Bank's investment arm DWS is in talks to form a joint venture with Japan's largest insurer Nippon Life in India, Reuters reported in May. Dai-ichi's current medium-term strategy, which runs for three years until March 2027, had targeted 300 billion yen for strategic investment. Besides the M&G stake, the company has also invested around 100 billion yen in Australian finance group Challenger and upped its stake in UK hedge fund Capula Investment Management. Dai-ichi's next strategy period is yet to be finalised but may run for four years, Kikuta said. ($1 = 143.9800 yen)
