Singapore Insurance

AIG bids farewell to its Asian arm AIA as a takeover by Prudential takes place. British insureer, Prudential, will offer up to US$35 million dollars for AIA. The deal will be settled through cash, paid through a rights issue by Prudential and also through AIG taking a minority stake in the British insurer. Prudential stepped in after AIG announced that it was intending to IPO its Asian arm. Analysts had previously forecasted that the IPO would raise 10 billion dollars. AIG had earlier intended to auction off 49 percent of its Asian arm after the financial crisis but that failed as it did not receive any suitable offers. Prudential will double its size by this deal.

Good news to all Medisave Account holders. Patients can now use Medisave to pay for private care abroad from next month onwards. This is limited to 12 hospitals and medical centres in Malaysia. However, patients will still have to be referred by two Singapore group centres first before they can seek treatment. The treatment has to be day surgery or in-hospital admissons. The two groups are Health Management International and Prakway Holdings. The referral centres for both are situated at Balestier Clinic and Health Screening Centre and East Shore Hospital respectively. This move would give Singaporeans more choice when it comes to seeking medical treatment overseas. The only question now is whether Medishield insurance coverage would also be extended to help pay for the bills overseas.