Samsung Life Continues to Roll

Insurer's Q1 profit came to 258 bln won, up 34.2 pct YoY, with assets totaling 148.5 tln won, up 8.5 pct YoY

Samsung Life Insurance Co. announced its first quarter operating results during an investor relations session on Aug. 12. The annual premium equivalent (APE) came to 882 billion won in the first quarter (April-June), up 3.7 percent YoY, indicating that its business continued to grow steadily in the period.
In particular, the APE in the guarantee type life insurance, which has a large profit margin, amounted to 427 billion won, up 12.9 percent YoY. The guarantee type insurance products accounted for 48 percent of all life insurance products sold during the period, the company said.
The company's assets totaled 148.5 trillion won at the end of the period, up 8.5 percent YoY, while the insured amount, not including retirement insurance, came to 4.77 trillion won, up 4.6 percent YoY.
The company's net profit in Q1 amounted to 268 billion won, down 52.7 percent YoY, but up 34.2 percent if the one-time profit from the repayment of Seoul Guarantee's ABS is excluded.
The company said from this year on, its financial statements will be made based on the IFRS method of accounting.
President Park Keun-hee of Samsung Life Insurance Co. said he will steer the company to seek new markets for growth in such areas as retirement funds, the wealthy and overseas markets as the three key corners of the company's operation while he is at the helm in order to ensure that the company's annual net profit would grow 10 percent on average, premium collection would grow 10 percent and the number of foreign countries in which it operates expands to 10 under the new 10-10-10 management strategy.
At the June 3 shareholders and the board of directors meetings, Park officially was named to head the largest life insurer in Korea as CEO. He said he will see that the company will rank globally in terms of operation, jump the boundary of being only a domestic life insurer by building a strong base for its long-term growth.
In order to prepare the company for the new objectives, the new CEO recently reorganized the company's operational structure. The overseas business team has been upgraded and expanded to be the overseas business headquarters. He also set up the integrated marketing office directly under the CEO by integrating the planning and marketing departments. The product development team has been divided into two set ups and seven operating units will each have a business team to strengthen their operations.
Park has been especially focused on overseas operations. He made an overseas tour to the company's joint venture life insurance firm, Korea-China Samsung Life Insurance Co., under his long-term vision to make Samsung Life a global concern, now that it is the largest in Korea. The operations in three cities in China including Beijing and Qingdao will be expanded to eight by 2015 and the company will deal with the sale of bancassurance in Thailand and expand its operations there in the near future.
Samsung Life currently operates in eight countries with 12 business operation units, including two joint-venture firms in China and Thailand. The company plans to set up operations in India and Indonesia within three to five years.
Currently, Park is focusing on the retirement fund market as it has great potential for growth with the life expectancy increasing in recent years. The company, for the first time in Korea, launched the Retirement Research Institute to search for appropriate life insurance plans for senior citizens including annual tailor-made stipend retirement insurance and investment commodities for wealthy retirees, among others.
Industry sources said Park's management of Samsung Life, the mother of all Samsung Group's financial affiliates, will also bring changes to other life insurance firms and speed up the globalization of the Korean life insurance industry.
The Samsung affiliate has over 8 million customers, the largest among domestic rivals and also the first in the areas of marketing and talented human resources in Korea.
The company has been a leader in the life insurance industry in Korea, introducing new products and services with its talented financial consultants. The company has also been at the forefront of providing social services including the operation of a hospital, a children's home and support to economically isolated people, among its other public services under its management ideal that corporate profits should be returned to society.
Samsung Life has also been busy exploring overseas markets for its products and services. In 1997, the company kicked off its overseas operations by setting up a joint-venture life insurance firm in Bangkok, which was followed by its entry into China's life insurance market in 2005. nw

President Park Keun-hee of Samsung Life Insurance Co.

Photo on Courtesy of Samsung Life