Finding Growth in Asia Insurance Market

Valuing future growth is always a challenge. If an industry is both growing and tightly regulated—the case with insurance in China and India— the task is even more difficult. American International Group Inc.'s two latest disposals in Asia provide insights for future valuations.

MetLife Inc. is paying 10 times operating profit to acquire American Life Insurance Co., or Alico, most of whose business—70% of earnings—is in Japan's slow-growing, saturated insurance market. Prudential PLC is buying AIG's American International Assurance Ltd. business at a multiple double that. The differential in multiples is the price of optimism about growth...

WSJ: Finding Growth in Asia Insurance Market