ALICO Japan being sold

Not specifically about Toyohara, but has an impact on his being a spokesperson for ALICO Japan the past three years. Will he be doing AFLAC CMs in the future or is his face too associated with ALICO now? Perhaps a familiar face would be what whoever buys ALICO would want to assure a smooth transfer?  (I’m assuming that while the article talks about “life insurance,” the sale of ALICO includes the hospitalization insurance coverage that Toyohara does CMs for.)

Text behind the cut is from Japan Times Online:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20081015n2.html

AFLAC Inc., the world’s largest seller of supplemental health insurance, may bid for American International Group Inc.’s Alico Japan life insurance unit, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Amos said.

Of the three life insurance businesses AIG is putting up for sale in Japan, AFLAC is most interested in Alico because of the similarity of the products they offer, Amos said Friday. Alico, with ¥1.47 trillion of premium income, is Japan’s fifth-largest life insurer.

“We’re investigating the possibility of bidding,” Amos, 57, said. “Alico has been a competitor of ours for years, and we think Alico has a lot of potential in terms of an acquisition.”

AIG said Oct. 3 it is seeking to sell life insurance and retirement businesses in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Japan as it tries to repay an $85 billion loan extended by the U.S. government to keep the New York-based insurer, formerly the world’s largest, from collapsing. In addition to Alico, AIG is selling its AIG Edison Life Insurance Co. and AIG Star Life Insurance Co. units in Japan.

AIG’s Tokyo-based spokesman Masato Kuroda said Tuesday nothing has been decided regarding the sale of the units.

AFLAC earns 70 percent of its revenue in Japan, according to Amos. He said Alico’s strengths include its distribution channels, including direct marketing, and Internet services.

Nippon Life Insurance Co., Japan’s biggest life insurer, Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., the nation’s biggest casualty insurer, and Allianz SE, Germany’s biggest insurer, may also bid for AIG’s local units, according to Keiko Mizuguchi, chief analyst at Japan Credit Rating Agency Ltd.

“For Japanese insurers, the business model that Alico has, which is using mail orders and Internet sales, is very attractive because it’s quite different from the traditional Japanese way of doing business,” Mizuguchi said. “For Allianz, it will be a great opportunity to expand its overseas business.”

Global insurers, like other institutional investors, are faced with declining securities prices amid the global credit crisis sparked by the collapse of the U.S. subprime market.

In Japan, 98-year-old Yamato Life Insurance Co. filed for court protection from creditors last week in the nation’s first bankruptcy by a life insurer in seven years, citing a decline in the value of investments. The Tokyo-based company’s debts totaled ¥269.5 billion.

AFLAC has boosted profit for six straight quarters.

What sets AFLAC apart from competitors is its investment policy, Amos said. Its $60 billion portfolio has no investments in real estate, stocks, subprime mortgages or credit-default swaps, and instead is made up of bonds, 98 percent of which carry investment-grade ratings, he said.

Even so, the company owned about $256 million in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bonds as of June 30, which now hold no value, he said.