ING Aetna Life to maintain workforce

JAKARTA (JP): ING Aetna Life Indonesia, a new insurance company formed from the recent merger between PT ING Insurance Indonesia and PT Aetna Life Indonesia, said it would retain its workforce obtained from the merger to strengthen its presence in the country's insurance market.

ING Aetna Life Indonesia's president and chief executive officer Susan P. Aguirre said on Tuesday that there would be no massive staff layoff, but that due to the circumstances of the acquisition certain top management positions would have to be discharged.

"All in all, only four people holding top management positions were discharged, because it would be impossible to have two people in the same position," she said on the sidelines of a media conference launching the new company.

ING Aetna Life Indonesia was established on July 1, following a US$7.7 billion acquisition of the United State's Aetna Financial Services by Amsterdam's ING Group late last year.

With the combined force of Aetna Life, ING Aetna now owns 450 employees and 2,600 agents in 85 branches across 22 cities in Indonesia.

It also has 280,000 policy holders, Aguirre said.

"We aim to be one of the top five joint venture insurance companies in Indonesia," she said.

ING Aetna Life Indonesia is 6 percent owned by PT ING Insurance Indonesia and 94 percent owned by Aetna Life Insurance Company of Indonesia (Alica) -- which has been wholly acquired by ING Group.

ING Group's general manager for Asia Pacific Hugo Smid said that the group had retained the name Aetna Life due to its strong market presence in Indonesia.

"The Aetna name has a good market value in Indonesia, it has a strong market presence, which we will capitalize on," he said.

As of June this year, ING Aetna has Rp 305 billion (about US$269.9 million) in capital, and total assets of Rp 307 billion, Aguirre said.

It has a solvency ratio (risk-based capital) of 85 percent, compared to the government's current requirement minimum of 15 percent, she added. (tnt)