Prudential Plc, the UK insurer besieged by activist investor Third Point, has agreed to acquire a bancassurance partnership in Thailand from FWD Group Ltd. in a 24.5 billion baht ($753 million) deal.
Prudential’s Thai unit will buy the exclusive rights from FWD to sell life insurance products through TMB Bank Pcl, the Thai lender said in an exchange filing on Thursday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report. The initial term for the partnership is 15 years and Prudential will pay in two installments, with 12 billion baht due next month, according to a separate statement by the UK insurer.
TMB, backed by ING Groep NV, had been exploring options for its existing bancassurance partnerships following a planned merger with Thanachart Bank Pcl that will create the country’s sixth-largest lender.
Alternatives included renewing the partnership with FWD or finding a new partner, Bloomberg News reported in November.
For FWD, a sale of its partnership with TMB would ease potential antitrust concerns after the Hong Kong-based company last year agreed to pay about $3 billion for the life insurance operations of Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank Pcl in its biggest acquisition.
FWD will receive 20 billion baht for the TMB contract, according to its statement. Concurrently with the SCB Life acquisition, FWD agreed its own 15-year bancassurance partnership with SCB, Thailand’s second largest bank by market capitalization.
