Hyundai Life Insurance CEO Lee Joo-hyuk announced Tuesday that it has established a strategic alliance with Taiwanese Fubon Life Insurance, a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Fubon Financial Holdings.

Fubon Financial Holdings is a leading financial group in Taiwan with assets of 200 trillion won ($180 billion), and owns life and fire insurance firms and banks.

Fubon Life Insurance has been selected as Taiwan’s best insurance company for three consecutive years and achieved a net profit of 1.3 trillion won last year.

Through the partnership, Hyundai Life Insurance hopes to promote growth while Fubon Life Insurance wants to enter the Korean financial market, the Korean insurance firm said.

Fubon Life Insurance invested 220 billion won and agreed to take 48 percent stake in Hyundai Life Insurance.

The partnership is an extension of global partnerships among Hyundai Motor Group subsidiaries, with Hyundai Capital partnering with GE and Banco Santander in 2004 and 2009, respectively, and Hyundai Card partnering with GE in 2005.

CEO Lee said that the partnership was beyond simple capital expansion, and that both companies plan to share strategies on asset management, product development and sales channels.

By Sang Youn-joo (sangyj@heraldcorp.com)