SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Warburg Pincus LCC is investing $350 million to set up a Southeast Asian digital general insurance platform called Oona Insurance, marking the U.S-based private equity firm’s largest investment in the insurance sector in Asia.
Warburg Pincus is partnering with Abhishek Bhatia, a former group CEO of Asian insurance company FWD Group’s new business models unit, to set up the new business, the buyout firm said in a statement on Thursday.
The private equity firm is one of the largest in Southeast Asia, having invested nearly $3.5 billion in 17 companies in the region since 2013.
Warburg Pincus said Oona comprises its insurance assets – Indonesia’s PT Asuransi Bina Dana Arta Tbk and Philippines’ Mapfre Insular Insurance Corp – which will give the platform an immediate foothold in Southeast Asia to build business and scale up.
“With consistently rising incomes and accelerating digital adoption, we believe Oona is well positioned to capture the tremendous growth opportunity for digital insurance across Southeast Asia,” Saurabh Agarwal, Managing Director at Warburg Pincus, said in the statement.
(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui and Anshuman Daga; Editing by Richard Pullin)
