Allianz’s offer makes business sense but Income’s ethos of affordable insurance hangs in the balance

WHEN Income Insurance announced its intention to corporatise in 2022, the exercise was positioned as an effort to achieve “operational flexibility” to enable it to compete in the mature domestic market that is Singapore.

Who could have predicted that a mere two years later, it would be poised to cede 51 per cent of its shareholding to a German giant?

Just this week, Allianz announced a pre-conditional general offer for 51 per cent of Income Insurance at S$40.58 per share, in a deal valued at S$2.2 billion. The offer represents a premium of 37.3 per cent over Income’s net asset value per share of S$29.55 as at December 2023.