According to Bloomberg, Manulife Financial Corp was the leading candidate to become an insurance distributor of Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank), thanks to an agreement with Aviva insurance company that had signed the exclusive cooperation contract with VietinBank in the distribution of life insurance products in April 2017, after VietinBank sold all of its remaining capital contribution at VietinBank Aviva Life Insurance Co., Ltd to Aviva Vietnam.
This contract could be valued at up to several hundred million dollars, a Bloomberg source said.
The news agency said the talks were still ongoing and could even fail. Other contractors might also appear. Representatives of Aviva, Manulife, and VietinBank all refused to comment on this information.
Manulife was an insurance group from Canada, currently operating in 11 markets in Asia, including Vietnam, Japan, and Hong Kong.
In 2019, one-third of Manulife’s core income came from the Asian market. 2019 also witnessed the number of Manulife agents in the region increase by 20 percent to more than 95,000, according to the latest annual Manulife report.
Bancassurance had become a popular way for insurance companies to expand their operations in Southeast Asia. Last year, FWD Group, an insurance company owned by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, had signed an exclusive insurance distribution cooperation agreement with the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank).
Reportedly, Aviva was restructuring business activities in Asia, including Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. In March, Aviva agreed to leave Indonesia by selling a stake in the joint venture to PT Astra International Tbk. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Earlier, in September 2019, Reuters also quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that several major insurance groups, including Canadian insurance companies, Sun Life Financial and Manulife Financial, were negotiating to acquire Aviva’s insurance segment in Singapore and Vietnam. The total value of the deal was estimated at $2 billion to $2.5 billion.
