Financial Times - Ceylinco Life & Swiss Re build homes for tsunami victims

Life insurance leader Ceylinco Life has collaborated with one of the world’s biggest reinsurers to give 16 families who lost their homes in the December 2004 tsunami a new lease of life.

Swiss Re of Zurich, Switzerland, financed the construction and furnishing of new houses on a block of land purchased for the purpose in the southern resort town of Kosgoda. The project was coordinated and executed by Ceylinco Life. The 16 housing units in four blocks are serviced by a 30-foot access road and have been provided with electricity, pipe-borne water and all necessary amenities, including a children’s playground.

The houses were presented to the recipients at a ceremony attended by Peter Newall, Head of Claims and Liability Management of Swiss Re Hong Kong, and senior management of Ceylinco Life. Ceylinco Life’s Chief Executive Director R. Renganathan said Ceylinco Life had also built new houses, renovated damaged ones and donated fishing boats to tsunami victims in the Trincomalee area under the same project. Newall said his company planned to open an Asian regional office soon, and increase its commitment to the region with projects of this nature. “We are very happy with the work that has been done by Ceylinco Life for tsunami victims in this country,” he said.

Swiss Re is the main reinsurer of Ceylinco Life. The world’s leading and most diversified global reinsurer, the company founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1863, operates through offices in over 30 countries. Swiss Re offers financial services products that enable risk-taking essential to enterprise and progress.