Why Great Eastern chose KATM as its partner?

Referring to previous article "Issuance of New Family Takaful Licenses" on 1st September 2010, many people are skeptical about Great Eastern's (GE) partner -- Koperasi Angkatan Tentera Malaysia (KATM). Given the other 3 new consortium which partner with banks, I am not surprise by those reactions.

To recap, the 4 new family takaful licenses:
  1. AIA with Alliance Bank
  2. Ambank with Friends Provident Fund (UK)
  3. ING with Public Bank and Public Islamic Bank
  4. GE with KATM
KATM, the country's Armed Forces multi-purpose cooperative, is however, no stranger to the insurance industry and it is a substantial shareholder of PacificMas with 16.4% stake. Meanwhile, Pacific Insurance Bhd is a wholly-owed subsidiary of PacificMas. (See picture below to see the GE-KTAM relationship)


Why with KATM?
KATM has 140,000 members which could be a huge market for GE to tap into. Another reason is that GE has to look into it's agents rice-bowl as well, if GE was to tied up with a local bank. Instead, GE dive into the 'blue ocean' where KATM is an untapped market of their existing agents. Other than that, this kind of partnership is well-isolated from political view, as KATM is not a company and it was not linked with government either.

Going forward...

Business Times had reported almost a year ago that Great Eastern had roped in former Prudential BSN Takaful Bhd chief executive officer Mohamad Salihuddin Ahmad to head its Islamic insurance operations.

Great Eastern would have a clear head-start compared to the other new takaful operators come next year and its reputation itself would give its an extra mileage.

Great Eastern is the largest insurance group in Singapore and Malaysia, with assets of S$48.5 billion (RM112 billion) as at February 10 2010 and 3.8 million policyholders in both countries.

On 30th August 2010, PacificMas saying it plans to sell its entire stake in Pacific Insurance Bhd to Fairfax Asia Ltd (Canadian company) subject to Bank Negara Malaysia's approval.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"You Can Keep Your Existing Health Insurance"

I wondered about this statement at the time Obama made it.  Clearly, by changing all the rules of health care insurance and mandating conformity, it was unlikely that the vast majority of Americans would not find themselves forced by 'The Affordable Care Act' to have to deal with a completely different health insurance plan and completely different set of health care providers. I now understand what Obama meant.   He was speaking to his immediate family and (politician) friends.  They are exempt from the "Affordable Care Act."  Clearly what he meant to say was: "if you are exempt from Obamacare, like me and my family, you can keep your existing health insurance."  He never meant to mislead.
Read more

Why Gold and Silver? Why Online Store?

Image
Are you first time gold and silver buyers? Why don't you invest in these popular metals? If you did so, you have had a wonderful investing experience after 2008 global financial crisis. But, do you really understand these metals? Were they really precious (especially now)? Traditionally, gold and silver were one form of exchange. Because of the invention of fiat money, they were being turned into some short of "back-up" currency , in case our fiat money system go burst. It's natural when things go wrong, gold and silver tends to appreciate in value. In other words, people hold precious metals to preserve the value of their assets. 3 Reasons Why Gold and Silver... Still hot in demand , especially by emerging affluent Chinese. Traditionally, Chinese loves gold. They bought it for events such as new born baby, new year, wedding and even funeral ceremony. Strengthening USD ??? Yes. It's a correct reason also. Why? Because of news that US going to stop QE3, USD is str...
Read more

Things We Now Know

The poor are losing ground in the new Obama world.  The facts are showing up even in the halls of collectivist extremes like the New York Times.  The rich are getting richer and poor are being locked in place.  Big government is throttling the economy and the hopes and dreams of lower and middle class Americans. Today's Wall Street Journal's article by Simon Constable lays out some of the simple and obvious facts of the Obama era: "The richest 20% of households account for 38% of spending, according to government data for 2011, the latest available.  Compare that with 2003 when the top earners spent 26% of the total."  The article goes on to say..."it could get even worse."  It will. Who really benefits when the regulators strangle the banks?  Do banks really need to get much more conservative in their lending practices?  Why does the government know best?  How far can you stretch the FDIC guarantees before American banking is simply a subsid...
Read more