Chief Executive Officer Kamaludin Ahmad said the group is looking at acquiring small and inexpensive insurance players in both markets and is in talks with several parties for the expansion exercise.
"We have been talking to a number of parties. The selection exercise is going to take a while," he told reporters after presenting its financial results for the year ended Dec 31, 2014 Wednesday.
He pointed out that obtaining the insurance licence in Indonesia and the Philippines is quite difficult and through the acquisitions, the company could leverage on the existing licences to operate there.
Kamaludin added that Maybank Ageas is targeting companies with lower valuation of between three to five times book value but with strong business operations and distribution channels. Maybank Ageas is the parent company of Etiqa Insurance Bhd and Etiqa Takaful Bhd in Malaysia. It made its presence in Singapore last year, providing both general and life insurance products.
"Singapore's contribution is going to be between 6.0 per cent and 7.0 per cent this year. It will be closer to 10 per cent next year," he added. Kamaludin said the company also expects its gross written premium to grow between 10 per cent and 12 per cent in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 from RM5.02 billion last year.
Maybank Ageas registered a pre-tax profit of RM767 million in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014, a five per cent increase from RM733 million in the previous financial year with a combined ratio of 85.1 per cent, down from 87.8 per cent a year earlier. It has total assets of RM31.6 billion as at Dec 31, 2014.
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