Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Life Health > Life Insurance

Japanese Firms Beat Out Americans To Take Over Failed Tokyo Life

By Staff Writer

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

NU Online News Service, June 26, 11:50 a.m. – Japan’s Daido Life Insurance Co., Nishi-ku Osaka, and Taiyo Mutual Life Insurance Co., Tokyo, today won the right to take over failed Tokyo Mutual Life Insurance Co., enabling it to resume business in October, according to a published report.

The Japanese duo beat out American International Group Inc., New York, and GE Edison Life Insurance Co., a unit of GE Capital Corp., Stamford, Conn., which had seen an opportunity to gain a foothold in the world’s second-biggest market, the report says.

Tokyo Mutual, formerly Japan’s 16th-largest life insurer, joined a succession of bankruptcies when it collapsed last March with liabilities of 980.2 billion yen ($7.91 billion) as of the end of September, according to the report.

Daido Life and Taiyo Mutual, second-tier insurers scheduled to integrate their operations in 2003, will slash returns promised to policyholders before 1998 to 2.6% from an average of around 4.7%, according to the report.

Tokyo Mutual’s negative net worth was 32.5 billion yen at the end of March, according to the report.

It was the seventh Japanese life insurer to fail in the postwar period, according to the report. Buying up failed life insurers is seen as a way to gain a foothold in Japan’s massive life insurance market at a bargain price, the report says.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.