Hollard goes Japanese
The Enthovens’ insurance company has quietly become massive locally. Tokio Marine has noticed
It has never been easy to put a value on Hollard, the unlisted insurer. But Tokio Marine, Japan’s oldest insurer, has just bought 22.5% for $327m, which would value the whole group at about R21bn. But Hollard is no longer the niche disrupter of the 1990s — it is a very large business, writing R25bn a year of premium income. Hollard CEO Saks Ntombela says the 22.5% holding is just enough to cement a co-operative relationship — but so not so big that the culture is diluted. Hollard’s freewheeling, informal style doesn’t look too compatible with the formal suits and bowing of Japanese corporates. But Tokio Marine CEO Tsuyoshi Nagano says Hollard’s approach to business is very similar to its own — maximising long-term partnerships rather than building monolithic operations in-house. Ntombela believes that Tokio Marine, with best practice in predictive analysis, robotics, risk management, underwriting and insurtech, should provide some of the tools to help develop insurance for the next ...
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