Third and fifth largest insurers Sompo and Nipponkoa unite
Japans third and fifth largest general insurers Sompo Japan Insurance and Nipponkoa Insurance plan to merge, Bloomberg reported.
An announcement on a merger under a holdings company structure by 2010 will be made as early as today.
Tokyo-based Sompo has a market value of 467bn yen ($4.9bn) while Nipponkoa is valued at 488bn yen.
“The merger is being done out of pure survival now,” said Winston Barnes, senior sales trader at WJB Capital Group in San Francisco. “Japan in many of its sectors needs consolidation; today’s news is insurance mergers and tomorrow will be consumer electronics or some other industry.”
Hirofumi Shinjin, a spokesman at Sompo Japan, and Hiroki Yamanaka, a Nipponkoa spokesman, both in Tokyo, declined to comment and referred to statements by the companies today saying no decision has been made on a merger.
