Latham & Watkins has advised Warburg Pincus, a leading global growth investor, on its establishment of Oona Insurance (Oona), a digital general insurance platform in Southeast Asia, and Oona’s initial acquisitions of two general insurance assets in the region.
The investment sees Warburg Pincus partner with Abhishek Bhatia, a seasoned insurance executive, to build the pre-eminent digital general insurance player in Southeast Asia. The transaction represents the largest funding round in the region to seed a digital insurance platform; Oona has already announced acquisitions of Mapfre Insular Insurance Corp. in the Philippines and PT Asuransi Bina Dana Arta Tbk in Indonesia.
Noah Carr, corporate partner at Latham & Watkins, commented, “We are delighted to support long term client Warburg Pincus and particularly happy to be able to support Abhishek and team in the establishment of Oona and acquisition of its first assets.”
The Latham team was led by corporate partners Noah Carr and Amy Beckingham, with associates Bing Xi Sia, Joanne Lao, I-Ming Tan, Janet Zhang, Edward Tang, and Karen Wong. Advice was provided on finance matters by partner Andrew Bishop, with associates Tian Lin and Marc Tan; on compliance matters by partner Kaede Toh and associates Miki Someya and Evangeline Tsui; and on DTT matters by partner Stuart Beraha and associate Benjamin Han.
