이 기사는 2022년 03월 08일 08:07 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Prudential Life Insurance Company of Korea, owned by KB Financial Group, will extend the tenure of its chief executive, Min Ki-sik, to the end of this year, a decision that signals its potential merger with KB Life Insurance next year.

Prudential Life will hold an annual general meeting at the end of March, where the company will seek shareholder approval for the extension of Min’s tenure to the end of this year, according to industry sources.

Min was named as CEO of Prudential Life in August 2020 with a two-year tenure after KB Financial acquired the insurer in the same year. He previously served as strategy chief of Prudential Life before joining DGB Life Insurance as CEO in 2019.

Prudential Life said that Min’s tenure as CEO will be extended so that it ends at the end of the year like those of CEOs of other KB Financial affiliates.

Some industry watchers say the move is part of KB Financial’s plan to merge Prudential Life and KB Life as soon as early next year.

Since its acquisition of Prudential Life in 2020, KB Financial, the holding company for Kookmin Bank and several other financial services firms, has operated Prudential Life and KB Life separately.

However, changes are expected next year because KB Financial is allowed to use the brand name “Prudential” until the end of 2022. The holding company has already applied trademarks of Prudential Life’s new names, with candidates including KB Star Life and KB Premium Life.

KB Financial would also want to combine its two life insurance units into one in 2023 when IFRS 17, the globally standardized accounting model for insurance contracts, becomes effective because that would be more efficient, observers said.

Prudential Life declined to comment on a potential merger with KB Life.

KB Life and Prudential Life have been working together to develop an information technology system, Life One System, for the past few months. They also named the same person as their chief consumer officer in October last year.

Meanwhile, Lee Woo-yeol, KB Financial’s chief strategy officer joined Prudential Life’s board of directors in February after his predecessor, Lee Chang-kwon, was transferred to KB Card as CEO as part of the group’s leadership reshuffle late last year. (Reporting by Eun-sol Lee)