Sumitomo Life earmarks up to ¥1 trillion for US, Southeast Asia investments

Sumitomo Life has set aside up to ¥1 trillion — roughly $6.3 billion — for investment under a business plan that runs through March 2029, a budget rather than an announced transaction. President Yukinori Takada told Bloomberg News that the US and Southeast Asia are where he wants to put it to work, and that Symetra Financial will lead the US search.

For US targets, Takada said he wants businesses that complement Symetra's existing employee benefits, annuities and individual life lines rather than compete with them.

Sumitomo Life has owned Symetra outright since February 2016, when it completed a takeover worth roughly $3.8 billion and took the company private from the New York Stock Exchange. Symetra kept its brand, management and Bellevue, Washington, headquarters.

Meiji Yasuda completed its $2.3 billion purchase of Legal & General America in February, and Nippon Life paid $3.8 billion for a 20% stake in Corebridge Financial in 2024 before completing its acquisition of Resolution Life. Japan's big life insurers face a shrinking, aging population at home, and the US, described in the report as the world's largest life insurance market, has been their preferred place to find growth. In insurance M&A, the buyers have lately been strategic acquirers rather than financial sponsors, as this publication has reported, and Sumitomo Life's earmark extends that pattern.

Takada also named Singapore's Income Insurance as a possible target in Asia, and said Sumitomo Life has no interest in growing overseas at any price.