Samsung Fire Seeks To Be Among Top 10 Non-Life Insurers

Company is first to break 10 tln won in insurance premium revenue and to expand and diversify its business areas

Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance Co. set up a strategy to expand its annual sales to place it among the top 10 non-insurance firms in the world by 2020, changing its business ideal from being just an insurance business to providing insurance business services as a leading non-life insurance firm at the forefront of change and innovation in the industry worldwide, the company said recently.
The company plans to expand its major business areas including taking over risks, providing reimbursement services, accident prevention, financial consulting, value growth and other services that are part of the business so that the company’s customers get services that give them peace of mind, diversified financial consultations, and daily services that boost customers’ quality of life, the company said.
In the meantime, the company became the first non-life insurance firm in Korea with annual insurance premium collections to surpass 10 trillion won in 2009, up 11.8 percent YoY. Its net profit amounted to 524.5 billion won, down 12.4 percent due to increases in auto insurance and long-term insurance losses, the company said.
Despite the reductions in net income, the company has been encouraged by its posting 10 trillion won in insurance premiums revenue last year, becoming the first among non-life insurance firms to do so.
The company has been pursuing future strategies ensuring its sustainable growth by strengthening its insurance business operational capacity and creating successes in overseas operations as a market leader at home along with building bases for its overseas market management capacity as well as the capacity for global management.
The company will do its best to find new businesses and expand them and advance into emerging markets by speeding up its global advancements.
The company will also complete the affiliation of its new businesses and the main business and make advancements into advanced markets so that it will rank among the top 10 non-life insurers in the world.
Samsung Fire also plans to strengthen its risk underwriting team for high-risk contracts and improve its reimbursement processes as part of the plan to expand its capacity for damage control and minimize losses from insurance fraud.
The company will also boost its consultation capacity for risk control and expand one-stop services for customers to make itself a service-oriented company.
In the meantime, Samsung Fire signed a business cooperation agreement with Hwatai Insurance Co. in Shanghai, China, on June 21 to jointly engage in the auto insurance business in Shanghai, signaling Samsung Fire’s entry into China’s auto insurance market. The agreement is likely to pave the way for Samsung Fire to launch its auto insurance business with Korean residents in China’s second-largest city, especially among the Korean business community, as the local laws currently bar foreign non-life insurance firms from providing auto insurance services in China.
In 2005, Samsung Fire set up its wholly-owned subsidiary in Shanghai for the first time among all foreign insurance firms in China and has been undertaking general corporate insurance business with the Korean business communities in China.
Hwatai Insurance is considered one of the most well-managed non-life insurers in China, with the ACE Group of the United States holding a 15-percent stake in the company. Samsung Fire chose the firm based on the effectiveness of its operation, rather than the scale.
Samsung Fire’s subsidiary in China runs four branches in Shenzhen, Qingdao, Souchow and Beijing, the most offices operated by any foreign insurer in China. It also holds an S&P credit rating of A, the highest among foreign insurers there.
China’s auto insurance market has been growing 20 percent annually for the past several years, with the 2008 market amounting to 170 billion yuan or about 30 trillion won, taking up 72.8 percent of the total non-life insurance market in China.
Samsung Fire officials said the company has built a bridgehead by signing a partnership agreement with Hwatai for its operations in the auto insurance market in China and the company plans to provide “one-stop” services to its Chinese clients, they said. nw

President Chi Dae-sub of Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance Co. , right, shakes hands with his counterpart for Hwatai Insurance Co. in Shanghai, China, after signing a business cooperation agreement to jointly engage in auto insurance in Shanghai on June 21.