Rakuten eyeing entry into non-life insurance market

January 29, 2018

Tokyo- Major Japanese cybermall operator Rakuten Inc. said Monday it is considering the acquisition of Asahi Fire & Marine Insurance Co., marking its entry into the nonlife insurance services market.

Rakuten is looking at taking full control of Asahi Fire, a unit of brokerage giant Nomura Holdings Inc. , informed sources said.

The envisaged deal is expected to cost 40 billion to 50 billion yen.

Rakuten, which already undertakes the life insurance business, hopes to strengthen its financial services, including banking and credit card businesses, the sources said.

It aims to develop unique insurance products, mainly by using information technology and data on over 90 million Rakuten member customers.

Asahi Fire was jointly established in February 1951 by Nomura Securities Co., Daiwa Bank, which was a precursor of Resona Bank, Dai-Ichi Bank, now a part of Mizuho Bank, and others.

The company provides fire, accident and automobile insurance products for individual and corporate customers. Its total assets stood at 368.9 billion yen as of the end of March last year.

On Monday, Nomura Holdings issued a statement admitting that it is considering transferring shares in Asahi Fire. Jiji Press