Full Capacity: APAC insurance M&A gains momentum

February 21 2026 by

Welcome to Full Capacity, a weekly briefing on all the most important developments of the past week with a personal take on the news from our editor-in-chief, Mithun Varkey, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.   

Trade deal. Swiss Re CorSo will acquire QBE’s trade credit and surety business. The deal is expected to yield annual revenues of around US$200 million for the Swiss Re CorSo. Speaking to InsuranceAsia News last year, Swiss Re CorSo chief executive Ivan Gonzalez had identified credit and surety as a key focus for the commercial insurer in the region. 

Hurdles cleared: Sompo has received the necessary antitrust and insurance regulatory approvals required to complete its acquisition of Aspen Insurance for an aggregate consideration of approximately US$3.5 billion. The deal is expected to close in the next several days and Sompo said it “will begin the process of integrating Aspen’s capabilities to ensure a globally diversified property and casualty platform”. 

Chasing deals: It has been a busy week for dealmakers at the wider Ardonagh group, which closed a deal in Hong Kong and Australia this week.  

The UK-based intermediary picked up a majority stake in Risk Management Insurance Brokerage, a Hong Kong-based specialist insurance brokerage. Its second deal in Hong Kong in less than a year, having bought Apex Brokers last year. 

Meanwhile, Cornerstone Risk Group, owned by Resilium Partners and backed by Ardonagh, has completed the acquisition of Australia’s Umbrella Insurance Services.  

Asean focus. HDI Global will focus on dynamic growth regions such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East as part of its 2026-29 strategy cycle. The new Xcelerate29 strategy comprises of three key strategic priorities to further strengthen HDI Global’s role as a leading corporate and specialty insurer. 

Retro program. The Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation finalised its terrorism retrocession program for the 2026 calendar year. The ARPC purchased a reduced retrocession limit of AU$2 billion (US$1.48 billion) with an increased deductible of AU$500 million. 

Deals beget deals: APAC’s M&A momentum

As I was compiling this week’s list of must-read stories for the newsletter, one theme stood out so clearly that it would be remiss not to call it out: the undeniable uptick in dealmaking across APAC. 

This momentum hasn’t come out of nowhere. At InsuranceAsia News, we’ve been tracking insurance M&A in the region for a few years now, and it’s clear that the pace has been steadily quickening.  

Our data for 2025 showed 68 deals – a sharp 39% jump from a year ago, when there were 49 deals. 

This resurgence defies the cautious climate of the year before, and there is good reason to believe that this cycle has legs. 

The defining story of 2025 was the hyper-consolidation of the distribution chain, with brokers and MGAs making up the lion’s share of transactions.  

At the same time, carriers that had adopted a wait-and-see stance in 2024 turned strategic and selective in 2025, executing transformative plays to diversify both geographically and by line of business – Sompo, MSI, DB Insurance and IAG among them. 

Private capital also made its presence felt, with players like Blackstone, KKR, and Apis – alongside ambitious corporate buyers – underscoring just how attractive and fragmented the regional landscape has become.  

The interest from EQT and CVC, even if their deals didn’t close, signals a growing appetite. Meanwhile, big corporates like Korea Investment Holdings and Hana Financial have hinted that insurance entry is a priority, reinforcing that this is no passing phase. 

True, much of the deal activity has been concentrated in the Pacific markets so far, but there’s no shortage of eager suitors across Asia.  

And if my years as an M&A journalist taught me anything, it’s that deal cycles tend to feed on themselves – deals beget more deals.  

We’re unlikely to see multi-billion-dollar mega deals in this region, but we’re probably looking at a wave of smaller transactions that will prove collectively transformative for the industry. 

All the signs point to a perfect storm for dealmaking: cash-rich acquirers still hungry for growth, regulatory recalibrations forcing strategic reassessments, and most crucially, a pricing cycle that has delivered double-digit ROEs for a lot of players, something the market is unlikely to see again soon with the market softening.  

Add to that the shifting dynamics brought on by analytics, AI, and whatever is the “buzzword” this season, and you have an industry being reshaped. 

For some, it’s a chance to make hay or to make way. 

People moves

Munich Re has promoted Michaela Hannemann to head of non-life for Australasia.  

Miller has bolstered its treaty reinsurance team with the appointment of Sailesh Divakaram as head of treaty for Asia. 

Markel has hired Johnny Zhang and Jon Tam to its greater China team in Hong Kong. 

Willis has tapped Michelle Ng as head of risk and analytics for the Pacific region. 

Do check out our weekly people move round-up to stay up to speed on the most important appointments in the region. 

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