New Owner Reported For Youngpoong Life

Prudential plc of England has reached a preliminary agreement to buy Youngpoong Life Insurance, according to a source at the Financial Supervisory Service on Friday. The understanding was reached with Korea Zinc, which holds 93.3 percent of the insurer.

The sale price is reported to be 37 billion won ($28.5 billion). The insurer had 19.8 billion won in capital and 109.2 billion won in assets at the end of June.

Korea Zinc would not confirm the report, but one official, Park Jong-kap, told the JoongAng Ilbo English Edition that representatives of Prudential have been in contact and have had access to financial data on the insurer. Officials at Youngpoong Life declined to comment.

Mr. Park said a sale of subsidiaries would be in its interest. "We are interested in changes that will make Korea Zinc leaner and focused on our core business," he said, "and the changes include selling affiliated companies."

The sale, if concluded, would make Youngpoong the ninth Korean life insurer to be owned by a foreign entity.

Youngpoong is small, with just 80 employees on the payroll and 150 agents. Financially, it is the strongest of Korea's life insurance companies. Youngpoong Life officials said that its policies are mostly tied to market interest rates, making it less vulnerable to the recent fall in rates that have hurt other firms.

Prudential plc is England's second largest insurer in terms of total assets. It is not affiliated with the U.S. insurer Prudential, which already operates in Korea.

by Kim Young-sae