By P.R. Venkat
Great Eastern Holdings has agreed to buy two insurance businesses in Malaysia for about 325.0 million Singapore dollars (US$236.7 million).
The Singapore-based insurance company, majority-owned by Oversea-Chinese Banking, will buy AmMetLife Insurance and AmMetLife Takaful in an all-cash deal, OCBC said in a filing to the Singapore Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
Great Eastern will have exclusive 20-year bancassurance and bancatakaful agreements to distribute life insurance and family takaful products through the distribution network of AMMB's banking subsidiaries across Malaysia.
Takaful is a type of Islamic insurance system.
Bancassurance arrangements typically give insurers the exclusive right to sell their products through a bank's branches. Such deals can attract foreign insurers seeking to enter new markets.
The proposed deal is subject to regulatory approvals from both Malaysia and Singapore.
Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-02-23 2106ET