Manulife to become VietinBank’s exclusive insurance partner with Aviva purchase

Canadian insurer Manulife will acquire the Vietnamese business of British company Aviva and its 16-year bancassurance deal with VietinBank.

It will take over the exclusive partnership with VietinBank when the deal is completed, Manulife and the lender agreed on Monday.

The state-owned lender chose Manulife as its bancassurance partner because of its long-term commitment to Vietnam, deputy director of VietinBank, Nguyen Duc Thanh, said at the agreement-signing ceremony.

He said his bank’s board expects the bancassurance business to grow by 30 percent annually and contribute 6-8 percent of the income from services.

Manulife expects the partnership to increase its market share in the country from 20 percent to 30 percent in the coming years. It is currently the exclusive insurance partner of the country’s largest private lender, Techcombank.

Aviva did not reveal the value of the sale but said in a statement that it expects the transaction to increase its net asset value and solvency surplus by around GBP100 million ($133.67 million).

The company is looking to sell its operations in continental Europe and Asia to focus on Britain, Ireland and Canada.

Vietnam had 18 life insurance companies with combined premium revenues of VND106.6 trillion ($4.6 billion) last year, up 24 percent year-on-year. In terms of new contracts, Manulife led the market for the first time last year with 17.7 percent followed by Bao Viet Holdings with 16.49 percent and Prudential Vietnam with 15.78 percent, according to the Ministry of Finance.