UT Life merges with Leapfrog Investments
LeapFrog Investments, a Pan- African investment firm, has acquired a majority stake in UT Life Insurance Company Limited by investing $10 million.
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The merger, according to the Managing Director of UT Life, Mr Kwaku Yeboah-Asuamah, is aimed at injecting significant capital investment into the company’s operations and further boost its growth.
It is also to position UT Life to meet the National Insurance Commission (NIC) minimum capital requirement of GH¢15 million for all insurance companies.
The deal was announced at a cocktail event held in Accra last Wednesday.
UT Life takeover
Mr Yeboah-Asuamah said the merger would position UT Life in its right position within competition as it widened its operations across the country.
Currently, UT Life is controlled by UT Holdings which owns 92.87 per cent stake in the business, with 3.31 per cent held by NSIA Ghana Insurance Company, while CDH Financial Holding holds 2.73 per cent. The remaining is held by other individuals.
UT Life entered the insurance market in 2011, following the acquisition of Golden Life Assurance Company by UT Holdings Group as part of efforts to widen the group’s footprints across the country’s financial services sector.
Mr Yeboah-Asuamah said although UT Life initially struggled to gain a firm hold on the life insurance sector, the company’s growth had been significant over the past few years as it had introduced a number of innovative products onto the market.
Leapfrog ready
A partner at Leapfrog Investment, Mr Doug Lacey, said the acquisition of UT Life was a further statement of the company’s intent to buy into emerging market businesses with potential for high resale value.
According to him, Ghana is one of the fastest growing economies globally, with the life insurance sector alone growing more than 40 per cent per annum.
Mr Lacey said the insurance industry in Ghana offered a compelling opportunity for quality, relevant and affordable products to fill the gap.
“Leapfrog thus values the Ghanaian insurance industry highly, after earlier acquiring Express Life Insurance Company, which in 2012 was the largest private foreign investment in Ghana’s insurance industry,” he added.