IFC and two funds it manages are investing in PVI Holdings in a move aimed at expanding insurance availability to people and businesses.

IFC, IFC Emerging Asia Fund and IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund will acquire 6.29 per cent of PVI Holdings from its major strategic shareholder, HDI Global SE. The investment will help PVI Holdings strengthen its position in Viet Nam and support its expansion across Southeast Asia.

After the sale, HDI Global SE will continue to remain the largest shareholder in PVI Holdings with 48.1 per cent of the voting rights. Together, HDI Global SE and IFC and funds will hold more than 54 per cent of the voting rights in PVI Holdings.

“As a shareholder, IFC’s expertise and experience in improving standards, risk management, and governance of businesses in emerging markets will help PVI Holdings perform better, further establish itself in the region, and improve its access to global capital markets,” said Kyle Kelhofer, IFC Country Manager for Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Lao PDR.

“Importantly, PVI Holdings’ continued growth will strengthen and deepen the Vietnamese insurance sector, a key financial infrastructure for the country’s further development.”

Transforming from a wholly state-owned enterprise to a listed joint stock corporation in 2007, PVI Holdings is a holding company that owns PVI Insurance Corporation and PVI Reinsurance.

Currently, only around 1.3 per cent of Viet Nam’s nearly 100 million population is covered by non-life insurance products and the penetration rate of the non-life insurance sector is just 0.85 per cent of gross domestic product (2020). Expansion of non-life insurance products will help provide protective safety nets for Viet Nam’s young population. — VNS