Philippine insurers Insular Life (InLife) and Oona Insurance group (Oona) have on Thursday jointly announced that they are entering into an agreement, with InLife selling its 40 percent stake in their non-life insurance joint venture, Oona Insular Insurance Corporation (Oona Philippines), making it Oona’s fully owned subsidiary.
Oona Philippines and Insular Life will continue their cooperation arrangements to cross-sell insurance products in the Philippines, the duo said in a statement.
The agreement is expected to further boost Oona Philippines’ status in the general insurance industry, building upon the series of innovations and services that it has brought to the Philippine market since it set up shop in the country last year.
InLife, on the other hand, will focus on its core life insurance and healthcare business to sustain the momentum it has achieved in the last couple of years.
Cited latest data, the duo said the life insurer jumped to number five at the end of this year’s first half in terms of its new business annualized premium equivalent.
They said InLife plans to support its scale and innovation efforts in its operations and distribution channels in its bid to move further up the rankings.
“As InLife moves forward to achieve accelerated growth and continue in its journey to provide customer service excellence through digital transformation and innovation,
we will continue to support Oona’s plan to strengthen its presence in the Philippines,” said InLife Executive Chairperson Nina D. Aguas.
Abhishek Bhatia, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Oona Insurance group, said he is optimistic and believe the deal will help them push for higher growth as they position themselves to be a major player in the Philippines’ non-life insurance market.
“We are deeply grateful to InLife for being a remarkable partner during our lift-off stage over the past year, and we look forward to maintaining our cross-selling partnership with InLife going forward,” he added.
Set up in 2021, Oona Insurance has established a presence in Indonesia and the Philippines and is fully backed by a $350 million equity commitment from Warburg Pincus.
In early September, Oona launched its “Smart Flight Delay” insurance product in the Philippines, an innovation that effectively addresses a specific concern among Filipino
air travelers – unexplained airline cancellations and flight time delays.
Subsequently, Oona launched its “Kahoona” intermediary distribution platform in late October, which is equipped with an “intuitive performance dashboard” and is replete with a host of digitally enabled features to make the entire sales and buying journey a breeze.
InLife is a life insurance company in the Philippines with over 113 years history.
The firm has an asset base of over PHP 147 billion ($2.66 billion) and net worth of PHP 50.2 billion ($905.21 million).
The firm has a nationwide presence through its 56 branches all over the country.
Philippine Hive Health acquires HMO service provider Health Plan Philippines, Inc.