AIG Appoints AIA Executive as New Chief of Nan Shan in Taiwan

American International Group Inc. has appointed Richard Bender as acting president and chief executive officer of its Taiwanese life subsidiary, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

He succeeds Frank Chan, who retired from the position, said Nan Shan in a statement.

Bender is currently executive vice president and chief agency officer of AIA Hong Kong, where he is in charge of distribution systems for more than 300,000 agents across 13 countries in Asia and India.

With 40 years of insurance experience, Bender will guide the company's management team, said Nan Shan. Nan Shan has 24 branches and more than 500 agency offices to support 4 million policyholders, with more than 8 million in-force policies and NT$1.7 trillion (US$54.8 billion) in assets.

A month ago, Hong Kong-listed China Strategic Holdings Ltd. terminated an agreement with AIG for the purchase of Nan Shan due to a regulatory rejection of the proposed acquisition of Nan Shan by China Strategic and its partner Primus Financial Holdings Ltd. (BestWire, Sept. 22, 2010).

AIG said it is evaluating options with respect to its ownership of Nan Shan after the regulatory rejection. In October 2009, AIG agreed to sell a 97.57% stake in Nan Shan to the Hong Kong consortium for US$2.15 billion. The deal would have given Primus a 20% stake in Nan Shan while China strategic would own the majority (BestWire, Oct. 13, 2009).

While AIG is planning an initial public offering of its Asian life subsidiary AIA Group on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the insurer has not made any indication about what's next for its life unit in Taiwan.

In July, Nan Shan reported total first-year premiums of NT$1.68 billion, representing a 6.5% market share for new life business, according to the Taiwan Insurance Institute.

(By Iris Lai, Hong Kong bureau manager: [email protected])