Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings is set to buy control of the non-life insurance unit of Indonesian financial group PT Paninvest.
The deal would value the Jakarta-based insurer PT Asuransi Multi Artha Guna at about US$200 million, inside sources told Bloomberg.
The news agency reported that an agreement could be announced in the next few weeks, though the sources also said that the two companies haven’t reached an agreement.
Any deal would still need regulatory approval and that there’s no certainty the talks between the two firms will result in a transaction, the report added.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, the buyout being discussed includes a bancassurance arrangement that will allow insurance products to be sold and distributed through the branches of PT Bank Pan Indonesia, the lending affiliate of Paninvest.
Fairfax Financial Holdings is led by Prem Watsa, the Toronto-based businessman who has been called the “Canadian Warren Buffet.”
Watsa has acquired insurance companies around the globe including Vietnamese property and casualty insurer BIDV Insurance, Malaysia’s MCIS Insurance and Indonesia’s PT Batavia Mitratama Insurance.
His firm has also purchased insurers in the US, Middle East and Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.
