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<\/p>\n\n Months after losing HSBC Life Singapore to Allianz, the Osaka-based insurer is signalling it still wants scale in the city-state, and has named a target that comes with political baggage\n <\/p>\n
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Singapore\u2019s insurance M&A market may have a new storyline. Sumitomo Life<\/a> president Yukinori Takada has named Income Insurance among the businesses his company is weighing, in an interview with Bloomberg News. He also confirmed the group has earmarked up to \u00a51 trillion for investment through to March 2029.<\/p>\n It is a striking choice of target. Income was at the centre of one of Singapore\u2019s most contested insurance deals. In 2024, Allianz<\/a> agreed to buy a 51% stake in the former NTUC co-operative for about S$2.2 billion. The deal was abandoned after the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth raised concerns that it lacked binding safeguards for Income\u2019s social mission. NTUC Enterprise has kept a controlling stake of roughly 72.8%.<\/p>\n Any approach from Sumitomo Life would almost certainly face the same scrutiny. That makes the size of the cheque less important than the governance promises that come with it.<\/p>\n Read next:\u00a0HSBC narrows bidders for Singapore life unit sale<\/a><\/p>\n Second time lucky?<\/p>\n Sumitomo Life has already come close in Singapore once this year. In April, HSBC\u00a0shortlisted it alongside Allianz and Daiichi Life<\/a>\u00a0for HSBC Life Singapore, with the Japanese bid running through its local subsidiary, Singlife.<\/p>\n Allianz came out on top. Its July agreement\u00a0values HSBC Life Singapore at S$2.7 billion<\/a>\u00a0and adds a 15-year exclusive bancassurance tie-up with HSBC\u2019s Singapore bank, lifting the total consideration to around \u20ac2 billion. The German insurer had been\u00a0hunting for a Singapore foothold since the Income deal fell apart<\/a>.<\/p>\n The result leaves Sumitomo Life with capital to deploy and one fewer large Singapore asset to deploy it on. Takada told Bloomberg he still sees room in the local market, describing it as one that \u201cstill has potential to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Two platforms, two regions<\/p>\n Sumitomo Life\u2019s overseas strategy rests on two businesses it owns outright.<\/p>\n In Singapore, it took full control of Singlife in 2024. That followed\u00a0deals with Aviva and TPG that valued the insurer at S$4.6 billion<\/a>, five years after its first investment.<\/p>\n In the US, it has owned Symetra since\u00a0completing a takeover in February 2016<\/a>. That deal, worth roughly US$3.8 billion, took Symetra off the New York Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n According to the Bloomberg interview, both units will be used to scout for acquisitions in their regions. Any US purchase is expected to add to Symetra\u2019s business rather than overlap with it.<\/p>\n Read next:\u00a0Singlife gets sole owner<\/a><\/p>\n A long Southeast Asian paper trail<\/p>\n Sumitomo Life\u2019s regional ambitions predate Singlife by more than a decade. In 2012, it bought HSBC\u2019s 18% stake in Vietnam\u2019s Baoviet Holdings for about US$340 million. A year later, it took 40% of Bank Negara Indonesia\u2019s life insurance arm, BNI Life, for 4.2 trillion rupiah.<\/p>\n Takada indicated that the next phase could extend into Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, with India under review but with clear reservations about regulation and culture. He also said the group would rather build steadily than chase growth at any cost.<\/p>\n The bigger picture<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s life insurers have spent the past two years buying abroad as an ageing, shrinking population limits what they can earn at home.<\/p>\n Meiji Yasuda\u00a0closed its US$2.3 billion purchase of Legal & General\u2019s US business<\/a>\u00a0in February. Nippon Life<\/a> finished buying Resolution Life last October and merged the Australasian operations into\u00a0the newly formed Acenda Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/0321_639277168454283165.png\")
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