UPDATE: Meifu To Pay Over NT$1 Billion For Aegon's Taiwan Operating-Source

Taiwan's Meifu Property Development Group will pay more than NT$1 billion (US$29.5 million) for Dutch insurer Aegon NV's (AEG) operation on the island, a person familiar with the transaction told Dow Jones Newswires on Wednesday.

"The announcement will come as early as later today," said the person, who declined to be named.

The person said the "headline number" of the deal's value will be around NT$3 billion, but the actual amount that Taipei-based Meifu pays will be more than NT$1 billion after "some adjustments." He didn't elaborate.

In recent months, several European insurers have been exiting Taiwan or scaling down their operations on the island, one of the world's most saturated insurance markets. The insurers are struggling to deliver the high returns promised to policyholders as they seek to reduce their capital burden.

The U.K.'s Prudential PLC is selling its Taiwan agency distribution operations and agency force to the island's China Life Insurance Co., and ING Groep NV sold its Taiwan life-insurance unit to Fubon Financial Holding Co. in February.

Aegon's Taiwan operation, which has been unprofitable for the past three years, had total assets of NT$187.2 billion and a net worth of NT$4.8 billion at the end of 2008, said Annie Kao, Aegon's public-relations director in Taiwan.

Aegon Taiwan President James H.C. Liu and Meifu Chairman Tom Peng Cheng-hao couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

-By Perris Lee Choon Siong, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]