Asia represents a promising market for our company going forward, not only due to its size and cultural diversity but also because of the population densities of individual countries and strong economic growth. We serve what is the world’s largest continent by area through our local units in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo. Our Hannover-based “Asia” Business Center concentrates and coordinates all activities within this market. This centralised responsibility combines the structured and holistic cultivation of the market with the advantages of our local network.

India offers us promising opportunities most notably through online sales of insurance products and the health insurance market. These positive developments have, however, been put under a cloud by draft new regulations for life reinsurance business. These new requirements heavily restrict the scope available to life insurers for efficient risk management, which will detrimentally impact the (re)insurance industry in the future.

Business in China, Hong Kong and Japan has fared very well thanks to the continuous need for reinsurance solutions in the areas of capital and solvency management. Going forward, we continue to see thoroughly attractive prospects based on sustained strong demand for reinsurance solutions.

In the financial year just ended we systematically expanded our business in Asia by cultivating markets and acquiring new clients. In the Philippines, for example, microinsurance is enjoying particularly brisk demand. Over the past five years alone the number of policyholders there has more than doubled.

In the field of Sharia-compliant reinsurance – so-called retakaful business – we further stepped up our activities in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.