Dear readers, it was announced today during the sitting of Singapore Parliament that the Allianz Income deal is off.
I heaved sign of relief as a Income Policy Owner as I heard the news. I am indeed happy that the deal is off.
To recap, news first broke in the middle of the year that Allianz and Income are working on a deal where Allianz will acquire 51% of the stake in income.
In my 15 Jun 2024 post, I expressed my worry at the deal as I mentioned that it was NTUC Income (former name of Income Singapore), a company which is associated with a broad sense of social mission that I bought my insurances from.
I am worried that the terms and conditions of my insurance policies purchase will change, and the social mission elements of my insurances eroded with a new company taking over. Most importantly, if I had known that Income will be acquired by another company and my insurance policies will be transacted with a company that I don’t know much of, I will not have bought my insurance policies under NTUC Income in the first place. I also added in the above article, that my identity with Income was not as strong as before with the change in name from NTUC Income to Income Singapore. I have also suspected more changes may be in place following the corporatization of the company to Income Singapore. I also mused that if the acquisition of Income by Allianz, the name of the company may change again to possibly Allianz Income (Allianz will come first as first half of the name with a major stake) or AI (which is also a buzz words these days) in short.
In another earlier post, I shared how, as an investor, I was already surprised to find good old Singapore listed companies, big (like NOL) or small (like Goodpack) were sold to entities outside Singapore. And I was even surprised that good old branded entities like Income Singapore in important businesses like insurances where many many Singaporeans contribute their monies could potentially be sold (and to a foreign firms). I really hope Income Singapore will continue to embrace this going forward. We definitely do not want Income Singapore to follow the footsteps of the above companies!
This episode which sparked the talk of town shows just how much Singaporeans have come to associate Income Singapore with its social mission, as I shared in an earlier post. The gist of many people being so concerned that the Allianz Income deal may go through is really on the worries that the social mission of Income Singapore may erode with such a deal.
If Income Singapore needs a boost in capital, as shared before, why not let GIC invest in Income Singapore? Or Temasek could also be another possible local heavyweight to invest in Income.
The authorities are looking into ways to rejuvenate the Singapore stocks markets. Why not let either GIC or Temasek invest in Income Singapore to give the liquidity it needs and then to list Income Singapore on the SGX? The listing will provide Income Singapore with further liquidity and also rejuvenate and excite the lacklustre Singapore stocks markets.