Tokio Marine Insurance has set a medium-term business plan concentrating on organic growth and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Asian markets, including Thailand, which has become an ageing society.
Hirose: Japanese market is saturated
The company is open to M&A opportunities with other insurance companies deemed to have growth potential while offering consistent value in customer benefits, said Shinichi Hirose, senior managing executive officer responsible for overseeing the company's operations in China and East Asia.
"Japan's insurance market is quite saturated, so other Asian markets will play a significant role in helping us increase profit to grow rapidly," Mr Hirose said.
At the end of last year, Tokio Marine Group reported a net profit of 116.04 billion baht. Life insurance in Japan contributed 25%, non-life insurance there provided 37%, and non-Japan business accounted for the rest at 40 billion baht.
Here, Tokio Marine Life Assurance Thailand reported total premiums received for 2017 of 6.16 billion baht, 13% above the industry average, which expanded by 2%. Of that amount, first-year premiums accounted for 1.47 billion baht, while 4.69 billion was attributed to renewal premiums.
Somphot Keitkraival, deputy chief executive, said insurance agents continue to be a major channel driving insurance premium growth, whereby agents contributed 4.39 billion.
The company targets total premiums of 6.92 billion baht this year or 12% year-on-year growth and expects its network of insurance agents to contribute 5.06 billion.
Mr Somphot said the company plans to increase the number of agents to 4,500 to drive business growth, projected to be buoyed by the incorporation of mobile applications.
Yuwadee Chalermsripinyorach, chief financial officer of Tokio Marine Life Assurance Thailand, said the company's investment portfolio at the end of last year was 20 billion baht, growing from 15 billion in 2017.
Last year's investments included government bonds at 90%, corporate bonds at 7% and equities at 3%.
