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