Daido, Taiyo To Takeover Tokyo Mutual

Japanese regulators yesterday selected Daido Life Insurance Co. and Taiyo Mutual Life Insurance Co. to take over failed insurer Tokyo Mutual Life, over the rival bids of American International Group and GE Edison Life, a unit of GE Capital Corp.

Tokyo Mutual, Japan’s 16th largest life insurer, collapsed last March with liabilities in excess of $7.9 billion. Its two new administrators are planning to merge their own operations in 2003, and will now begin integrating Tokyo Mutual’s operations with their own.

The administrator indicated that the proposal set forth by Daido and Taiyo was superior to the proposal he’d received from AIG and GE Edison, and would provide greater protection to Tokyo Mutual policyholders, even though guaranteed returns on policies will be cut from an average of 4.7 percent to around 2.6 percent.