Insurer Great Eastern Holdings has named industry veteran Khor Hock Seng as its new group chief executive officer (CEO), it said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Tuesday.

Mr Khor, 56, will take over on Nov 2 from Great Eastern's acting group CEO, Norman Ip, who will remain a director there.

Mr Khor will be moving over from rival insurer Aviva Asia, the regional arm of British insurance giant Aviva.

His departure from the Aviva group comes barely three months after it tapped Mr Khor in mid-June 2015 to be the new CEO of its freshly bought subsidiary, Friends Provident International (FPI). That appointment had taken effect on July 1.

He had also been CEO of Aviva Asia since early 2013, according to an Aviva press release on Tuesday which added that he had grown its value of new business by 30 per cent in 2014.

Aviva said in its statement that Chris Wei, executive chairman of both Aviva Asia and FPI, would continue to oversee the region while the new CEO of FPI would be Adrian Emery, subject to regulatory approval.

Coincidentally, Mr Wei used to be group CEO of Great Eastern before joining Aviva in 2014.

Koh Beng Seng, chairman of Great Eastern, said in a statement on Tuesday that Mr Khor has "extensive knowledge of the Asian market".

Great Eastern shares fell S$0.53 to close at S$20.28 on Tuesday.