Allianz names new CIO for Asian insurance arm
Allianz Investment Management, which runs the general account assets of German insurer Allianz, has named a new chief executive and chief investment officer for Asia, AsianInvestor can reveal.
Ritu Arora has taken up the Singapore-based role to replace Eugen Loeffler, who retired at the end of March. Arora is overseeing a portfolio that stood at €25 billion ($30.6 billion) in the first quarter of 2016. Allianz IM now has €653 billion in global AUM.
According to her LinkedIn page, Arora was previously head of investments at Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance until December 2016. She is also a founder member of the firm, a joint venture between Canara Bank (holding 51%), HSBC Insurance (26%) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (23%).
She had also served as a deputy director at MetLife India, of which she was also a founder and where she spent four years, according to her LinkedIn page. Prior to that, Arora worked as treasury manager at both Coca Cola India and Gillette India.
Allianz could not immediately confirm Arora's background or starting date by press time.
Allianz has life businesses in Asian countries including China, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. It also has a life joint venture in India and property-and-casualty businesses in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
In February last year Loeffler told AsianInvestor that Allianz was looking to diversify its Asian insurance portfolio more into international equities and alternative assets, in particular infrastructure and private debt.
Before becoming CEO and CIO of Allianz IM in August 2014, Loeffler had been based in Seoul as Asia-Pacific CIO at Allianz Global Investors, the group's fund management business.
Before moving to AllianzGI, he ran investments for Allianz’s insurance companies in Switzerland and headed the global equity team for Allianz IM.
Loeffler also served as CEO of Hana Allianz Investment Trust Management (now AllianzGI Korea) from 2001 to 2005.