Fitch: Japanese Non-Life Insurers to Continue Seeking Overseas M&A

Fitch Ratings says in a new report that Japanese non-life insurers are likely to continue to look for M&A opportunities overseas to improve returns from the capital that will be released by continued reduction of their equity crossholdings.

The overseas businesses of the three major Japanese non-life groups demonstrated strong growth in the financial year ending March 2015 (FYE15), contributing to the overall earnings for the respective groups. Overseas businesses are a key growth driver for the Japanese non-life groups, while appropriate risk management remains important, says Fitch.

Underwriting profit of their domestic non-life business also jumped in FYE15, driven by the premium growth and the absence of catastrophic-loss events. That said, catastrophe exposures and domestic equity exposures continue to cause volatility in non-life insurers' operating performance.

The dashboard includes Fitch's latest update on Japanese non-life insurers' key financial data and ratios in 2015, including improvement in underwriting earnings and core capital.

The dashboard is available at www.fitchratings.com or by clicking the link in this media release.