Millea Asia Pte. Ltd. (hereinafter "Millea Asia", CEO: Takaaki Tamai), a wholly owned subsidiary of Millea Holdings, Inc. (President: Kunio Ishihara) has established Tokio Marine Nichido Retakaful Pte. Ltd. (hereinafter "TMN Retakaful") in Singapore. The new company commenced its operation from 22nd November 2004. TMN Retakaful is a reinsurance company specialising in "takaful" business, which is an insurance alternative often considered more acceptable to Muslims than conventional insurance. TMN Retakaful is the first ever retakaful specialist company established by a major international insurance group.

Generally considered to have first appeared in 1979, "takaful" is a financial system based on the teachings of Islam, which prohibits such elements as excessive uncertainty, gambling and interest (or usury). It therefore allows Muslims to enjoy economic effects similar to conventional insurance e.g. loss compensation, death/disease benefits and mutual aid. There are mainly two lines of takaful business - a life insurance substitute is referred to as "family takaful" and a general insurance substitute as "general takaful". TMN Retakaful will concentrate on providing retakaful services for "family takaful" business and is expected to write S$ 38 million (JPY 2.5 billion) of revenue by the end of the 5th accounting year.

Presently the Islamic financial service sector, which provides banking, takaful and other similar services in compliance with the teachings of Islam, is growing very rapidly on a global basis. In views of this, Millea Group has decided to enter the retakaful business as a part of its global strategy. The group already has experience in direct takaful business through its affiliated company in Saudi Arabia and, in addition, has recently initiated a takaful branch operation under its group company in Indonesia.

Millea Group will actively continue to develop sustainable profitable business opportunities and serve our customers by providing them with our customer-oriented products and services, especially in the Asian markets covered by Millea Asia. 

                                                                                                                   Appendix
TMN Retakaful
Head office : Singapore
Shareholder : Millea Asia (100%)
CEO : Colin Pakshong
Number of employees : 4
Established : 23rd September 2004
Planed to be commenced : 22nd November 2004
Capital : Singapore dollars 25million

Millea Asia
Head office : Singapore
Shareholder : Millea Holdings (100%)
CEO : Takaaki Tamai
Number of employees : 45
Total Assets : Singapore dollars 364 million
(December 31 2003)

Millea Asia was founded in December 2002 as the intermediate holding company and Asian regional head quarter of Millea group. Currently, it manages 17 local group companies engaged in businesses related with non-life and life insurance in Asian countries. The company also provides management and technical support to its subsidiaries and affiliates.