OCBC ups stake in insurance arm Great Eastern to 88.4%

OCBC has upped its stake in insurance subsidiary Great Eastern Holdings to 88.4 per cent from 87.9 per cent, the bank announced in a regulatory filing on Monday (Jun 19).

The purchase, OCBC stated, was on “a willing buyer willing seller basis” of about 2.3 million shares at S$16.99 each in cash or S$39.9 million in total, without specifying the date of the transaction.

The move came despite Great Eastern being a drag on the bank’s performance in recent quarters. The Singapore-listed insurer posted a 22 per cent fall in total weighted new sales to S$390.9 million for its fiscal first quarter ended Mar 31, from S$503.6 million in the same period the year before.

But the bank’s chairman Andrew Lee had at its annual general meeting affirmed Great Eastern’s benefit as a capability within the banking group. “It is not something that we trade, it is something that we build on. As we build on Great Eastern, the benefits will be reflected also in OCBC,” Lee said.

OCBC shares were 0.5 per cent lower at S$12.59 while Great Eastern shares rose 0.9 per cent to S$17.20 at market close on Monday, before this announcement was made.