Kyobo Sells Auto Insurance

Kyobo Life Insurance was pleased to announce that they had sold off their auto insurance unit to AXA SA, which is undoubtedly France’s largest auto insurer. The South Korean life insurance company is only selling the auto insurance subsidiary of its holdings.

AXA is purchasing the entire 74.7% stake in the life insurance company, but they did not say for exactly how much. Some experts have estimated the full amount of their auto insurance portfolio to be somewhere around $95.8 million. The deal will enable AXA to become the first foreign insurance company to enter the South Korean auto insurance industry.

Kyobo decided to sell the auto insurance portion of their company as they felt it was too far from where they wanted to be going with their life insurance policies, and felt that their insured’s would be better off with a company that specialized in auto insurance policies. The deal is good for their employees as well, as AXA has agreed to maintain all employees that are currently with the company.

AXA still has to go through South Korea’s financial regulator to get approval, but there is nothing that would seem to hold up the deal at this point. AXA is pleased with the deal as they have been trying to expand into the South Korean auto insurance market, and this is the perfect venue for them.

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