Singapore-headquartered e-commerce and gaming giant Sea Ltd is said to be preparing a move into Indonesia’s insurance sector.
The US-listed tech firm has prepared plans to acquire an insurance company in Indonesia, Financial Times reported on Wednesday, quoting two people close to the discussions.
One person said a likely target was Asuransi Mega Pratama, a general insurance firm recently acquired by one of Sea’s business partners. Such an acquisition would prepare Sea to better compete with rival super apps including Jakarta-headquartered GoTo and Singapore-based Grab. Both tech firms are aiming to provide a one-stop-shop from ride-hailing, food delivery to financial services to their users across Southeast Asia.
GoTo and Grab already provide insurance to users and ride-hailing drivers through partners. Sea, in some markets, also allows insurers to sell policies on its e-commerce platform.
Filings to the Indonesian authorities show that insurer Asuransi Mega Pratama was acquired early in the year by an entity owned by Andy Indigo, son of Indonesian business tycoon Ganda, according to the report.
Indigo is Sea’s most important business partner in Indonesia, holding nearly 50 per cent stake in Sea’s digital payments arm in the country, and co-invested in its acquisition of local lender Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi in 2020.
A person familiar with the deliberations also told Financial Times that Indigo’s control over Mega Pratama prepared the ground for a takeover by Sea.
Sea has yet to respond to TechNode Global‘s query.
In a statement announcing its fourth-quarter results released in March, Sea earlier said the company has expanded various product offerings including credit services to consumers and merchants across more markets, started offering services in digital banking and insurtech in Indonesia and obtained a bank license in the Philippines.
The Sea-led consortium and Grab-led consortium are among the winners awarded digital banking licenses in Malaysia, according to Bank Negara Malaysia’s announcement late last month. Both companies also secured digital banking licenses in Singapore, alongside their consortium partners in December 2020.
Mergers and acquisitions could serve as a faster way for well-funded tech giants in the region to expand their FinTech and Insurtech businesses.
Grab was also said to be eyeing a stake in Ambank, Malaysia’s sixth-largest banking group, The Edge Malaysia reported last weekend. Earlier in January, Grab and Singtel each bought a 16.3 percent stake in Indonesian lender PT Bank Fama International.
Gojek, which has now merged into GoTo, acquired a 22 percent stake in Indonesia-based Bank Jago in December 2020. Later in November 2021, Bank Jago partnered GoPay, Gojek’s FinTech arm, to offer digital banking services via Gojek super app.