(by Mark Riley)

Aoba Life Insurance, a Japanese life insurance company, can be bought by a Japanese unit of Prudential Financial Prudential Life Insurance for Y20 billion ($182 million).

The company’s last owner was Artemis group of France and now Aoba can become Prudential’s subsidiary by the end of 2004. By the end of 2005, therefore, Prudential Life has an option to integrate Aoba’s operations into its own. Prudential assets are expected to rise sharply after the acquisition.

“Prudential Life expects to generate an attractive return on this investment by combining its existing assets and abundant cash flow with those of Aoba Life,” was said in unit’s statement.
Prudential says it is going to conduct further expansion to Japan.