A failed takeover bid by Global 500 insurer Allianz is now a political hot potato in Singapore’s election
About 2.75 million Singaporeans are qualified to vote in the general elections of the country of Southeast Asia on May 3, and they choose Prime Minister to lead the city for the next half of the decade.
In the nine days of electoral campaigns, one of the shortest deal in the world, a failure between Allianz, the 500th Global Insurance Giant, and the insurance of the local insurance company from last year, is pulled to the spotlight.
Allianz offered income insurance for $ 1.7 billion last July. The deal was controversial: Singaporeon is concerned that the company’s new owner may push income away from his social mission of providing reasonable prices for Sengaporen.
A few months later, in October, Singaporean officials prevented the deal. Allianz abandoned the acquisition offer in December.
Now, politicians of the ruling people’s work party and its main opposition, the Labor Party, put the deal that has now ended to register political points in the hot electoral districts. The main topic of discussion: Why was Singaporean officials well with the deal before changing their minds later, who failed to ask questions at that time.
Speaking at a rally on Sunday, NG Chee Meng, President of the National Conference of the Convention, argued that the labor movement initially felt that the acquisition offer was reasonable and that he would have enhanced income insurance. NG, who was running for a seat in parliament in Singapore as part of the ruling PAP party, was responding to the arguments that the union should have spoken against the deal.
Income insurance used to be part of the NTUC umbrella. Even after privatizing the income, NTUC ENERPRISE remains a majority contributor, with about 72.8 % of the shares.
However, NG promised “a better job” during the Sunday gathering. “We will do our best, and sometimes we regret that it is not good enough.”
Former Prime Minister Lee Hsin Long argued that the Labor Party would have agreed to the income insurance deal if the opposition party was carrying power. He pointed out that only one member of the opposition in Parliament has inquired about the acquisition, and that the Labor Party refrained from a procedure to prevent the merger.
Pretam Singh, the leader of the Labor Party, accused PAP deputies for not asking questions about the deal last year.
Another WP member, HarPreeet Singh, called on Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong to explain his role in the Scuppered deal, and to respond to an open letter by the former CEO of Tan Suee Chie.
The letter, addressed to GAN and published on April 27, asked questions about organizational control, the changing role of NTUC, and accountability.
On Tuesday afternoon, Gan asked why the opposition was not interrogated in the income deal at the time. However, the Deputy Prime Minister also tried to explain the reason that the government of Singapore changed its opinion on the Allianz’s offer. “We want[ed] To support the deal, because it will help the income. But when more details were provided, we decided [we had] To stop the deal, “make it clear.
On Saturday, elections will be the first political test for PAP leader, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who took over the party last year. PAP, who has been governing Singapore since its independence in 1965, is expected to remain in power after the elections.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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2025-04-30 03:22:00
