Fosun sets sights on reinsurance peak Fosun International, the Chinese investment group and industrial conglomerate, has launched a pan-Asian operation that aims to become the leading reinsurer in the region. Fosun has linked up with former Swiss Re executives and IFC, the financing arm of the World Bank, to back Peak Re, only the second privately owned reinsurer ever to be set up in the region. It will have $550m of capital - of which $468m is from Fosun. The four-strong founding team behind Hong Kong-listed Fosun are admirers of Warren Buffett, the billionaire who controls Berkshire Hathaway, and the deal takes them a step closer to emulating the so-called Sage of Omaha's investment empire, which generates most of its funds from the huge reinsurance business at its core. Insurance is a rapidly growing industry in Asia as an emergent middle class becomes more aware of the value of protecting their assets. General insurance premiums are expected to grow 6-8 per cent annually in Asia, which compares with growth of about 2 per cent in the west, according to analysts. Peak Re will focus on natural catastrophe and other general insurance risks to which ordinary people in Asia are exposed. "This is not about David Beckham's legs or satellites, but about insuring the people of the region," said Franz Josef Hahn, Peak Re chief executive and a former head of greater China for Swiss Re. The middle classes need protection to be sustainable and reinsurance is important in supporting that. Wang Qunbin, president and one of the four co-founders of Shanghai-based Fosun, said the group's investment in Peak Re was for the long term and aimed at exploiting the very strong growth opportunities it saw in Asian insurance. This is not about David Beckham's legs or satellites, but about insuring the people of the region Franz Josef Hahn, Peak Re chief executive "We want to support Peak Re to become the leading reinsurer in the region and later a leading reinsurer globally," he said through an interpreter. We study Warren Buffett a lot and aim to become a leading international investment group, but we want to go along Fosun's own route. Mr Wang added that it was "one of our wishes" that a reinsurance group could become as important to Fosun as it was to Berkshire. Mr Wang and Mr Hahn laughed off comparisons between Eckart Roth, Peak Re's chief underwriting officer, and Ajit Jain, the legendary reinsurance brain behind Berkshire's success. Fosun last year formed a $600m private equity fund with Prudential Financial, the US insurer, while it has also invested in Yong'an Insurance and New China Life in China and AIA in Hong Kong. More broadly, the HK$35bn ($4.5bn) group has investments in pharmaceuticals and healthcare, property, steel, mining and retail. Serge Devieux, director for financial markets in Asia at the IFC, said the investment was part of an increased emphasis on insurance at the World Bank arm because of the industry's role in promoting risk management, capital markets development and sustaining business activity. "We see a lot of linkages that serve our development mission," he said. Mr Hahn said the initial capital should enable Peak Re to be "a real presence in the market" for a couple of years, while also allowing them to look at potential acquisitions of portfolios of existing business.