Nippon Life ready to acquire a stake in Reliance Insurance

Nippon Life is Japan’s largest life insurer. The company is about to acquire a 26% stake in the Indian insurance company Reliance Life Insurance for 720 million USD. The transaction is likely to upgrade Reliance Life at 2.8 billion USD.
By November 31, 2010, Nippon Life was running 3.76 billion USD of capital. Japanese life insurers are mostly mutuals. The collapse of life premiums collection in a market where birth rate is declining and the elderly are living longer and longer, has pushed local insurers to seek growth abroad.