Singlife Garners Credit Ratings Upgrades and Stable Outlook from Fitch and Moody’s

Leading homegrown financial services company Singlife, is pleased to announce that it has been assigned credit rating upgrades by Fitch Ratings ("Fitch") and Moody’s Investors Service ("Moody’s") for both Singapore Life Holdings Pte. Ltd. and its wholly owned operating subsidiary, Singapore Life Ltd.

This follows Singlife's acquisition by Sumitomo Life Insurance Company (“Sumitomo Life”), a leading Japanese insurer with strong 'A+' (Fitch) and 'A1' (Moody's) ratings. Both Singlife and Sumitomo Life have been given a ‘Stable’ outlook by Fitch and Moody’s.

Fitch gave Singlife a two-notch upgrade and Moody's upgraded Singlife by a notch. Details are in the table at the bottom of the article.

Singlife is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Life and its only wholly owned life insurance subsidiary in South-east Asia. The region has seen faster growth than the mature Japanese life insurance market. Fitch says Singlife is a “core operating entity” and "very important" to Sumitomo Life. It also noted that Singlife has strong capitalisation. These factors contributed to the upgrades in credit ratings. Moody's says its upgrade is based on Sumitomo Life's stronger credit profile which benefits Singlife in terms of market position, capital resources and financial flexibility. In addition, it says Singlife has a solid market position in Singapore, low-risk product and investment mix and a stable capital position.
 

Both rating agencies also expect improved profitability for Singlife, because of its focus on value-added protection products.
 

Pearlyn Phau, Group Chief Executive Officer, Singlife said: “These credit ratings upgrades are a testament to Singlife’s strong financial position, solid shareholder backing and the strategic value we bring to the Sumitomo Life family. They reflect our strengthened credit profile, validate our business performance, focus on profitability and our innovative suite of product offerings for customers. We are confident that we will deliver on our long-term growth ambitions in Singapore and in the region."
 

Singlife is the sixth-largest life insurer in Singapore, with total assets of S$14.4 billion as of 31 December 2022 and a market share of approximately 7.0% in terms of gross premiums as of the end of 2023.  Singlife has demonstrated robust growth, recording the highest year-on-year asset growth among the top ten insurers in the Singapore[1].

More information on the Fitch report is available here, and for Moody's click here.

[1] Singapore’s top 50 insurers see 3.7% YoY asset decline in 2022