ALLIANZ MALAYSIA LOOKS TO BUILD TRAVEL COVER BUSINESS

Allianz Malaysia is looking to gain a 30% market share of the travel insurance sector in Malaysia by 2010, according to Allianz Malaysia CEO Alexander Ankel. Speaking at the launch of Allianz Travel Care, Mr Ankel said that the company was looking for a 10% market share within a year. Allianz Malaysia already has one other travel product, which accounts for about 2% of the 20m ringgit market. Mr Ankel said that Allianz Malaysia would be targeting the 5m Malaysians who travel abroad each year, plus tourists to Malaysia who were from countries where insurance penetration was not great. Allianz Malaysia is looking to increase the size of its customer base in the country by more than 100% to between 5m and 8m by the end of the year. The company’s reach would be helped by its proposed purchase for 40m ringgit of locally based Commerce Assurance, which would increase Allianz Malaysia’s number of branches to 55 from the current 34, and the number of agents from 5,000 to 8,000. The acquisition, which still requires regulatory approval, was likely to be completed by Q3 2007.