Generali Thailand, a unit of Italy's Generali Group, aims to see a whopping 80% growth in new life insurance premiums and a 24% increase in premiums of its non-life insurance arm this year.
Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) and Generali Insurance (Thailand) want to be leaders in digital lifestyle service by adopting technology from their Italian parent, creating impressive experiences for their customers, said Bundit Jiamanukoonkit, chief executive of Generali Thailand.
Bundit: New focus on digital platform
"This year our strategy focuses on digital after adopting a 'digital engagement' strategy over the past three years to provide customers convenience, as they demand based on their lifestyles," he said.
"We also widened distribution channels to support our strong growth. We remain the leader in group insurance business."
Generali's life insurance unit delivered 50% growth in premiums last year to 7.46 billion baht, while the non-life insurance company posted 26% growth in premiums, said Mr Bundit. Both firms' premiums were better than expected, he said.
Generali Life Assurance's premiums in 2016 tallied 4.97 billion baht.
Korakrit Khumruangrit, chief executive at Generali Insurance, said accident and health insurance products, the bancassurance channel and direct insurance premiums contributed to the company's premium growth, which exceeded the non-life insurance industry's premium growth of 4.5% last year.
The company's accident and health insurance premiums recorded 838 million baht in 2017.
Other factors supporting the company's premium growth included the health-conscious trend, the government's approval for taxpayers to deduct health insurance premiums from taxable income, and the company's customer-centric marketing, said Mr Korakrit.
The cabinet in September last year approved an additional tax break on premiums paid for health insurance, letting taxpayers claim a deduction of up to 15,000 baht for premiums paid to health insurance provided by life and non-life insurers.
The new measure went into force retroactively from Jan 1, 2017.
