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Cigna Extends Partnership with Hollard Insurance in Africa
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Cigna Corporation’s (CI - Free Report) global expatriate business segment, Cigna Global Health Benefits, recently extended its partnership with Hollard Insurance Group, an insurer based in Africa.
The alliance is expected to address the requirement of a fully compliant health insurance product for residents of sub-Saharan Africa. This new health insurance product to be offered has been named Hollard Cigna Health. This custom-made product will also cater to the legal needs of staff members who are mobile across regions and nations, expatriates and even key local nationals operating in different regions.
This partnership combines Cigna’s global exposure and substantial expertise in Health solution with Hollard’s dominance in the African markets owing to its brand recognition and local market knowledge. Hence, the partnership can make use of its ISO-certified procedures to establish an all-in-one solution for multinational corporations that intend to build a presence in sub-Saharan Africa as well as companies already operating in the region.
African markets are segregated by unique demands, expectations and legislations. Therefore, Hollard Insurance is well positioned as a local insurance player to have extensive insight on the varied and distinctive markets of sub-Saharan Africa. This should prove to be highly beneficial for Cigna in its efforts to penetrate into the concerned African markets and profit by delivering premium quality yet affordable health care to its clients, customers and partners in the area. In addition, this strategic alliance is likely to expand Cigna’s global footprint with more customized and compliant regional health insurance solutions.
This expansion into African market reflects the company’s long-term strategy of accelerating international operations. Notably, the insurer has been expanding its base to new markets, owing to the significant regulatory pressure in the domestic market in the face of the Healthcare reform. To this end, Cigna has been diversifying its operations in China, India, Turkey and the other Middle Eastern countries to fuel future growth.
Moreover, we believe that the company’s distinctive presence in the emerging markets will bolster its earnings and expand margins. Its international business offers faster growth (high-double digits) and higher margins (high-single digits to low-double digits) than its commercial book. Given the aggressiveness with which Cigna is forging ahead with its “Go Global” strategy, we expect the contribution of its international business to be largely accretive to total earnings, going forward.
Companies like Aetna Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH - Free Report) who deal with medical product and services, are also growing their international businesses.
With the optimism over the recent partnership with Hollard Insurance, the Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) multi-line insurer might witness favorable estimate revisions and in turn a rank upgrade.
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Cigna Extends Partnership with Hollard Insurance in Africa
Cigna Corporation’s (CI - Free Report) global expatriate business segment, Cigna Global Health Benefits, recently extended its partnership with Hollard Insurance Group, an insurer based in Africa.
The alliance is expected to address the requirement of a fully compliant health insurance product for residents of sub-Saharan Africa. This new health insurance product to be offered has been named Hollard Cigna Health. This custom-made product will also cater to the legal needs of staff members who are mobile across regions and nations, expatriates and even key local nationals operating in different regions.
This partnership combines Cigna’s global exposure and substantial expertise in Health solution with Hollard’s dominance in the African markets owing to its brand recognition and local market knowledge. Hence, the partnership can make use of its ISO-certified procedures to establish an all-in-one solution for multinational corporations that intend to build a presence in sub-Saharan Africa as well as companies already operating in the region.
African markets are segregated by unique demands, expectations and legislations. Therefore, Hollard Insurance is well positioned as a local insurance player to have extensive insight on the varied and distinctive markets of sub-Saharan Africa. This should prove to be highly beneficial for Cigna in its efforts to penetrate into the concerned African markets and profit by delivering premium quality yet affordable health care to its clients, customers and partners in the area. In addition, this strategic alliance is likely to expand Cigna’s global footprint with more customized and compliant regional health insurance solutions.
This expansion into African market reflects the company’s long-term strategy of accelerating international operations. Notably, the insurer has been expanding its base to new markets, owing to the significant regulatory pressure in the domestic market in the face of the Healthcare reform. To this end, Cigna has been diversifying its operations in China, India, Turkey and the other Middle Eastern countries to fuel future growth.
Moreover, we believe that the company’s distinctive presence in the emerging markets will bolster its earnings and expand margins. Its international business offers faster growth (high-double digits) and higher margins (high-single digits to low-double digits) than its commercial book. Given the aggressiveness with which Cigna is forging ahead with its “Go Global” strategy, we expect the contribution of its international business to be largely accretive to total earnings, going forward.
Companies like Aetna Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH - Free Report) who deal with medical product and services, are also growing their international businesses.
With the optimism over the recent partnership with Hollard Insurance, the Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) multi-line insurer might witness favorable estimate revisions and in turn a rank upgrade.
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A better ranked multi-line Insurers is CNO Financial Group Inc (CNO - Free Report) . It carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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Beyond this Analyst Blog, would you like to see Zacks' best recommendations that are not available to the public? Our Executive VP, Steve Reitmeister, knows when key trades are about to be triggered and which of our experts has the hottest hand. Click to see them now>>