Japan’s Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance wants to seek more acquisitions overseas, where it’s prepared to spend to buy attractive assets.
“There is no such thing as ‘too expensive’ when it comes to hundreds of billions of yen,” President Hideki Nagashima said in an interview, referring to the acquisition price. “Depending on the other party, we may have to be a little more daring.”
He is particularly keen on the U.S., where its subsidiary StanCorp Financial Group said this year it’s buying Allstate’s benefits unit for about $2 billion. The firm’s ambitions reflect bold moves also being made by many of its local rivals, all hunting for growth outside of the country given Japan’s shrinking population. The country’s insurers have announced about $44 billion of acquisitions and investment deals over the last five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.