Koen Devos, Head of Investor Relations at Ageas, is getting away from it all. He’s in Vietnam, as a tourist and explorer. So there’s no Koen’s blog this week.  Instead we have “The week of… Bart De Smet”. And maybe next week too, who knows? In the past week, our CEO has been in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

After spending two days in China, Bart flew to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday for a meeting of the Board of Maybank Ageas Holding, our joint venture with Maybank in Malaysia. Bart comments: ‘Besides assessing operational performance in the year to date, the meeting concentrated on the commercial plan, the operational initiatives and the budget for the coming years.’

Malaysia’s national motto “Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu” (Unity is Strength) summarises why Malaysia is the success story it is. Malaysia boasts one of South-East Asia’s most vibrant economies, the fruit of decades of industrial growth and political stability.  Malaysia has one of the fastest growing insurance markets in Asia. Ageas has been in Malaysia since 2001, when it established the Group’s first joint venture in Asia in partnership with Maybank, the leading bank in Malaysia. Today, Ageas enjoys a 31% stake in this joint venture, which since 2007 has operated under the brand name of Etiqa with both conventional and Takaful Islamic approved “insurance” products.  The company is the No.1 player in the Takaful segment with 38% combined market share for family (life) and general, and No.3 position overall.  

On Monday, Bart continued his journey to Hong Kong where the Executive Committee and the Management Committee spent three days perusing plans for the Asian region, Ageas’s overall M&A strategy and the budget for the next three years. Bart says: ‘It was three very intensive days with constructive discussions and a satisfying outcome.  On top of this, the Management Committee got the opportunity to have close contact with our colleagues responsible for Asian activities and to strengthen the group spirit.  Some of us also attended the board meeting of AICA, our Hong Kong company.’

Hong Kong is the most densely populated area in the world with a population of seven million. But while geographically it may be small, it is also the ninth largest trading entity in the world and home to one of the world’s leading international financial centres. Total gross premiums of the long-term insurance business are approximately EUR 250 billion or 13.4% of Hong Kong’s total GDP. Penetration rates based on the number of policies sold per head of population are over 100%.  Ageas is represented on the ground in Hong Kong by a wholly owned subsidiary, Ageas Insurance Company (Asia) Limited (AICA), established in 2007. AICA is one of the larger life insurance companies in Hong Kong and it offers a comprehensive range of diversified financial protection and wealth management services. On Friday, Bart ended his working week in Brussels, at our head office in the rue du Marquis. He admits: ‘After eight days abroad, it was good to be back at the office for a day to digest some of the work done in the previous week, and to prepare for next week, which will undoubtedly be again full of challenges and opportunities.’