International general insurer Axa S.A. [85085] said it has tied-up with the takaful and retakaful group Salama Islamic Arab Insurance Co. [78342] to provide group life solutions, including death and disability coverage from passive war and terrorism, to its corporate clients in the United Arab Emirates.

According to Axa, the group life product underwritten by Salama is designed to offer the same benefits and reinsurance security as a life product being sold by Axa in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain.

Through this partnership, Axa Servicing Co., a unit based in Dubai, will provide policy administration, premium collection and claims handling services. The unit already serves of about 65,000 health clients in the Persian Gulf region.

The insurer said the combination of Axa's group health policy with the group life product will allow UAE corporate clients to give a comprehensive employee benefits package to their staff and ensure staff members are well protected financially.

Axa Gulf's chief executive officer, Jean-Louis Laurent Josi, said the company is optimistic about the prospect of providing consistent employee benefits solutions to its clients across the Gulf region, as well as to further enhance its service levels to customers.


He added that Salama is the company's ideal partner which shares the same values of "fairness, transparency and reliability" with Axa.

Noel D'Mello, Salama Family Takaful's general manager, said the company has gained credibility with both distributors and clients for its competitive product offerings and consistency in high service standards over the last two years.

D'Mello also said the company has "ambitious" plans of growing its distribution reach across all lines of family takaful, or Islam-based insurance, business within the UAE.

Salama Islamic Arab Insurance Co. is one of the world's leading takaful providers, with a paid-up capital of US$300 million.

In the first quarter this year, the insurer and its subsidiaries recorded three-month gross written underwriting income of Arab Emirates Dirham411 million UAE dirhams (US$112 million), compared with 298 million dirhams in the correspondent period of 2008.

Axa is one of the major international insurers in the Gulf region, offering insurance products and services for corporate and individual customers. It has more than 620 employees serving 250,000 customers in 12 offices region-wide, with gross written premiums of over US$430 million.

Salama Islamic Arab Insurance Co. currently has a Best's Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent).

(By Rebecca Ng, Hong Kong news editor: Rebecca.Ng@ambest.com)