Nippon Life President says he's actively exploring mergers and acquisitions in the United States

TOKYO (Reuters) – Nippon Life Insurance Co is actively seeking overseas mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the emerging economies of the United States and Asia, said Monday the president of the largest life insurer in Japan.

Japanese insurers have been among the most aggressive in overseas acquisitions. Yet, unlike smaller rivals, Nippon Life has not entered into a transaction in the United States, with the exception of a minority stake in TCW Group's badet management company. 2017.

"The United States is the largest life insurance market in the world. We are looking for ways to expand our business there, "President Hiroshi Shimizu told Reuters in an interview.

"We would also like to explore various opportunities in emerging Asia," he said, but did not provide details.

Life insurers believe growth is still possible in Japan, as the aging of the population is expected to create demand for new insurance products in the nursing and medical fields, but they are increasingly eager to watch abroad, as their domestic market is facing a decrease in their population.

Nippon Life is a mutual company owned by its policyholders. The company has completed a series of acquisitions in recent years and had total badets of about 78 trillion yen ($ 711.6 billion) at the end of the year. September of last year.

Last year, Nippon Life bought for about 100 billion yen a 85.1% stake in the US-based MbadMutual Financial Group's Japanese unit to reach MbadMutual's rich customer base. In 2016, it bought $ 2.5 billion from its smaller competitor, Mitsui Life Insurance Co, to boost sales through bank branch networks.

With these acquisitions and the creation of a new company to become a third-party insurance agent sales channel, Shimizu stated that Nippon Life had acquired the necessary units for the domestic life insurance business for the time being.

The company is now putting more emphasis on business creation abroad.

Nippon Life has acquired an 80% interest in MLC Ltd, operator of the fourth largest life insurer in Australia, at National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB.AX) for 2.4 billion Australian dollars in 2016.

But Nippon Life is the only one of the four largest private life insurance companies in Japan that has not made major acquisitions in the United States.

Rival Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc. (8750.T) purchased US insurer Protective Life Corp for approximately $ 5.6 billion in 2015, followed by Sumitomo Life's acquisition of Symetra Financial Corp. $ 3.7 billion and the purchase of StanCorp Financial Group by Meiji Yasuda Life in 2016 for $ 5 billion.

"We can not develop life insurance and badet management by ourselves abroad, we need to find partners with whom we can have a long-term trust relationship" Shimizu said.