Besides mining, another business activity that Canada is very good at is insurance. Maybe it has something to do with all the Scots who immigrated into Ontario, but the country has always punched above its weight in the insurance arena.
In Ireland the country’s largest insurance company Irish Life has had a Canadian owner since 2013, Great-West Lifeco. Before then, Canada Life, also owned by Great-West, had been active in Ireland for decades.
Sun Life is another of Canada’s insurance giants, though the growth focus has shifted in recent years to wealth management. While not directly active in Ireland with its insurance products, there are c.500 people employed by the company in Waterford, where Sun Life Information Services Ireland is located.
The premises on the IDA estate in the city was recently upgraded, with 276 solar panels installed to produce up to 20% of the electricity requirement on days when the Sunny South-East lives up to its billing.
The premises refurb has a stated investment cost of €6m and, with the help of state aid, Sun Life is promising to keep hiring. Originally opened in 1998, the Waterford facility supports Sun Life’s operations globally, including the UK.
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The Canadian firm recently agreed to sell Sun Life UK to Phoenix Group, with the deal consisting of a closed book of life, pensions and annuity business, consisting of c.480,000 in-force policies.
That sale appears to have been prompted by Brexit-related regulatory hassle. In any case, SLF Inc, the Sun Life public company, has other fish to fry. Half of SLF’s profit is sourced in North America, while Sun Life Asset Management chips in 38% of net income. Sun Life Asia accounts for 16% of profit, and the company sees that proportion growing in the coming years.
Sun Life Assurance, based on 1 York Street in Toronto, was incorporated in 1865 and went public in 2000. One in six Canadians is a Sun Life client, and revenue in 2021 was €26.5bn, and net profit was €2.9bn. With 24,600 employees across the group, the Waterford activity is small cog in a big wheel that rewarded shareholders with €1,060m in dividends last year.
CEO Kevin Strain sees many trends in Sun Life’s favour, especially in Asia, where the company is active in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia. As the SLF annual report politely puts it: “The trend of governments and employers downloading responsibility to individuals continues.”
