The company was formerly known as Uni.Asia Life Assurance and was a joint venture between United Overseas Bank and DRB-HICOM.[1] Uni.Asia Life itself was the successor to EON CMG Life Assurance Berhad from 2003.[2] Uni.Asia Life was sold to PFI and BSN in 2014 for RM518 million.[3] PFI and BSN hold 70 and 30 percent stakes in the company respectively.[4] (A 69 percent stake in UOB and DRB-HICOM's general insurance JV, Uni.Asia General Insurance, was sold separately to Liberty Mutual for RM374 million.[5])
PFI is an asset management and life insurance provider in the U.S. with US$1.2 trillion of assets under management in June 2015.[6] It was attracted to the venture due to opportunities for growth stemming from the low life insurance penetration rate in Malaysia.[4] BSN is a statutory body under the Ministry of Finance responsible for encouraging savings and financial management among Malaysians, with retail deposits of RM12 billion in 2013.[7]
The company's name is derived from PFI's logo which incorporates an image of the Rock of Gibraltar.[8] Its stated expansion plan is to offer easy-to-understand products, target the semi-rural and rural population, and leverage on BSN's eight million-strong customer base.[3][4] It had an 800-strong agency force in April 2014.[9]
