The Singapore-based firm, with its sights set on being a regional player, is also eying an initial public offering within five years, its group chief executive officer Pearlyn Phau said in an interview Wednesday.

“Scale is important and there are markets in Southeast Asia that are still pretty much underpenetrated in terms of insurance,” said Phau, who joined the insurer last year after almost two decades at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. “We are looking for opportunities for us to acquire and pick up some assets in the region.”

The firm, that’s backed by TPG Inc, and Japanese insurer Sumitomo Life Insurance Co, has been on an expansion drive since it got its license in Singapore five years ago. It bought the business portfolio of Zurich Life a year after, and acquired Aviva Plc’s Singapore business in 2020 in the biggest insurance deal in the city-state.

Phau said the firm, now known as Singlife with Aviva, is working to understand “very exciting” markets like Indonesia and Vietnam, and determine if they fit into the insurer’s overall strategy. She prefers the acquisition route since licenses, like what the firm got in Philippines in 2020, may not be so easy to obtain.