MET Insurance now Hollard Ghana
South Africa's second biggest non-life insurer, Hollard Insurance, has entered the country through a 51-per cent acquisition of Metropolitan (MET) Insurance Company Limited.
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The acquisition, which was done last year, makes it possible for MET Insurance, formerly a wholly-owned Ghanaian company, to rebrand as Hollard.
The company will, however, retain its local staff.
The Chief Executive Officer of Hollard Ghana, Mrs Linda Odro, said the company overlooked "fat cheques" to settle for Hollard in a partnership that blended local expertise with international experience.
She explained that the choice of Hollard was based mainly on the company’s track record as an insurer of choice.
"If it is money we wanted, we would have settled for other partners other than Hollard because many of the investors that we interacted with came with fatter cheques. We could have even gone with the equity companies but after that then what," she said in an interview after the rebranding.
The rebranding came months after the industry regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NIC), directed insurance companies to recapitalise to GH¢15 million, up from the previous GH¢5 million.
Long-term view
The Managing Director of Hollard International, Mr Brooks Mparutsa, explained that the company had always taken a long-term view in every partnership it entered into and the acquisition of MET was not an exception, as it served as its entry point into the West African market.
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Having made tremendous impact on the insurance industry in South Africa, Mr Mparutsa said it was now time to diversify into other markets, including the West African sub-region.
With the big balance sheet of Hollard International now available to Hollard Ghana, he said the latter would now be ready to underwrite bigger ticket transactions for clients.
He mentioned regulatory certainty, room for growth and operational philosophy as the key things that motivated his outfit to partner with MET Insurance.
The Commissioner of Insurance, Mrs Lydia Lariba-Bawah, lauded the partnership as a step in the right direction. She called on the new entity to introduce products that would help the Ghanaian public.
She said the commission expected innovative ways to improve the regulatory environment and thus called on the executive of the sector to support it in that regard.