Buletin Takaful

Source: The Edge Daily, 5th May 2008

The emergence of a Middle Eastern shareholder in composite Islamic insurer Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd (Takaful Malaysia) would give the local insurer more financial clout to expand globally and even embark on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to stay ahead in the highly competitive domestic market.
Moreover, Malaysia’s second-largest syariah-compliant insurance company would be able to tap its new partner’s links with global infrastructure companies and cross-sell its general policies.

“Once we get the capital and we have new partners as our shareholders, it (M&A) is possible. We hope to cross-sell some of our products to cover some of the infrastructure projects that they are embarking on both in Malaysia and overseas,” Takaful Malaysia’s group managing director Datuk Hassan Kamil tells The Edge.

To recap, Takaful Malaysia told the exchange last year that it had obtained Bank Negara Malaysia’s approval to begin talks with two foreign institutional investors — Islamic Arab Insurance Co P.J.S.C (SALAMA) and Abu Dhabi-Kuwait-Malaysia Strategic Investment Corp — with the view to disposing of up to 49% in the insurer to one of the Middle East companies.

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Source: The Edge Daily, 19 Mac 2008

KUALA LUMPUR: MAA Holdings Bhd has received the go-ahead from the central bank to begin negotiations with AmAssurance Bhd to sell a stake in wholly owned takaful insurance arm MAA Takaful Bhd.

MAA yesterday said that Bank Negara had in a letter dated March 10 given it the green light to commence negotiations with AmAssurance regarding the sale of stake in MAA Takaful.

In a separate announcement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, AMMB Holdings Bhd said that AmAssurance would commence discussions for the acquisition of an equity stake in MAA Takaful. However, no details were made on the level of equity stake involved.

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Source: The Edge Daily, 5th November 2007

ING Insurance Bhd is looking to make Malaysia its global Islamic insurance hub and has initiated talks with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to produce and manage takaful products for distribution to other countries.

“We are very, very interested in takaful. We are pursuing certain opportunities that are available in the domestic market. We have spoken to BNM about how we can leverage on our global presence by being the hub for takaful,” ING Insurance president and chief executive officer Dr Nirmala Menon told The Edge Financial Daily.

She said countries ING Insurance was considering for the distribution of its takaful products included those in the Middle East, China and India which have significant Muslim populations.

“We believe that there is a market, and if we can have the expertise to manufacture those products, we can have them distributed,” she said.

She said having spoken to BNM, ING Insurance was now “assessing and digesting” the guidelines and necessary requirements for this initiative, adding the company was still in the early stages of its plans to enter the takaful market.

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