US PRUDENTIAL TO TAKEOVER YAMATO LIFE

GIBRALTAR Life, a subsidiary of the US’s Prudential Financial, is due to take over Japanese life insurer Yamato Life, which declared bankruptcy in October last year. Under the terms of the deal agreed yesterday, Yamato will become a subsidiary of Gibraltar Life, with the latter agreeing to boost the Japanese company’s capital, rather than paying a purchase price. Yamato became effectively insolvent after writedowns on securities left it with a negative net worth of about ¥64bn and a shortfall of about ¥38bn. A Japanese government safety net will provide about ¥30bn of this financial hole, with the purchase by Prudential providing the rest.