Consolidation of the Korean Life Insurance Industry & Panic Selling Due to COVID-19

349 Views13 Apr 2020 13:36

SUMMARY

The combination of the panic selling due to COVID-19 combined with the consolidation of the Korean life insurance industry has resulted in interesting opportunities to invest in Samsung Life Insurance (032830 KS) and Hanwha Life Insurance (088350 KS) at deeply depressed prices.
Samsung Life Insurance owns an 8.5% stake in Samsung Electronics, which is currently worth 25 trillion won. Samsung Life Insurance's market cap has fallen to 10.1 trillion won so its 8.5% stake in Samsung Electronics is nearly 245% of its entire market cap.
On 10 April, Kb Financial Group (105560 KS) announced that it will acquire Prudential Life Insurance Korea for 2.3 trillion won ($1.9 billion).
Following the sale of Prudential Life Insurance Korea to KB Financial, it has been reported that KDB Life Insurance is also likely to be sold soon with a private equity firm called JC Partners, which is expected to purchase a 92.7% stake in KDB Life Insurance for about 200 billion won and afterward conduct an additional rights offering of about 300 billion won.

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