Ace Ltd. has agreed to buy New York Life Insurance Co.'s Hong Kong and South Korean life operations for about $425 million, the global insurer announced yesterday.

The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed in the first quarter next year, Ace said in a statement. The purchase will help it expand into the two north Asian markets where it has property and casualty insurance operations and $2.15 billion of assets, it said.

The units are Ace's third acquisition in Asia after agreeing to buy Malaysian general insurer Jerneh Insurance Bhd. for about $210 million last month. Chief executive officer Evan Greenberg is expanding the company after staying profitable through the credit crisis and has announced $1.75 billion of acquisitions this year.

"Within the first full year of ownership, the acquisition will be accretive to both earnings and book value per share and will achieve a return on capital that meets our targets," Mr. Greenberg said in yesterday's statement. The acquisition announcement came shortly before Ace announced a 37 percent increase in third-quarter net income compared to the same period last year and raised its earnings guidance for 2010.

Ace said net earnings were $675 million for the July through September period, compared to $494 million for the same three months of last year.

"Ace had a very strong third quarter with good earnings contributions from all of our principal businesses," Mr. Greenberg said. "Our book value per share grew seven percent in the quarter and is up 15 percent for the year. For the quarter, after-tax operating income was $688 million while our P&C combined ratio was 88.4 percent. Our annualised operating return on equity was over 13 percent for the quarter and nine months."

Book value increased $1.4 billion during the three months and now stands at $67.34 per share.

"Based on our strong results for nine months and positive outlook for the fourth quarter, we are raising our full-year 2010 operating earnings guidance from $6.25 to $6.75 per share to $7.20 to $7.40 per share," Mr. Greenberg added.