Nippon Life Insurance has announced it will take a 35 percent stake in Myanmar’s Grand Guardian Life Insurance Company (GGLI) in a deal worth USD 21 million. According to a report in Dealstreet Asia, the deal is expected to be completed by October this year. Grand Guardian would be renamed Grand Guardian Nippon Life Insurance. “While the life insurance market in Myanmar is still in an early stage of development with private insurers granted licences in 2013, with attractive demographics and solid economic development, high growth rate of the life insurance market can be expected over the long term,” Nippon Life said in a statement. The move is the latest sign of progress in Myanmar’s nascent insurance market. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Planning and Finance established a list of Preferred Applicants for Foreign Life Insurance Licences. This will allow the firms to operate as 100 percent wholly-owned subsidiaries of their parent companies.