InLife enters joint venture with SG firm subsidiary

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-owned Insular Life (InLife) has teamed up with the local unit of a Singaporean firm in a bid to ramp up its products and widen its reach.

InLife recently entered into a joint venture agreement with Oona Philippines Holding Corp. for its general insurance subsidiary, Mapfre Insular Insurance Corp. (MIIC).

This, after Mapfre Internacional SA of Spain, MIIC’s prior partner, decided to exit its business interests in Asia, including the Philippines.

With the exit of the Spanish firm, InLife is increasing its stake in MIIC from 25 percent to 40 percent, while Oona will acquire the remaining 60 percent stake in MIIC.

InLife executive chairperson Nina Aguas said the firm’s focused execution, strong and tested brand, and wide network were attractions to Oona.

“The joint venture will allow for our current and future distribution channels to scale up and provide stronger and better general insurance products delivered using technology,” Aguas said.

Oona Philippines is a subsidiary of Oona Singapore, which aims to become the pre-eminent digital general insurance platform in Southeast Asia.

It is backed by Warburg-Pincus, which is a global private equity firm and a leading global growth investor with more than $80 billion in assets under management.

Aguas emphasized that InLife is leveraging Oona’s capability-building and value-creation capacity to strengthen its reach and allow both to increase relevance and cooperation.

“This will give us more arsenal to pursue our growth trajectory for our non-life businesses as we become stronger players in the digital economy,” Aguas said.

InLife is the first, largest, and only mutual Filipino life insurance company in the country with an asset base of over P154 billion and net worth of P47.8 billion.