"Central Insurance never made money in its core business over the past decade. The profit-earning portion used to come from investments made by premiums," Pai said.
Despite lacking a background in insurance, Pai brought in expertise in communications and implementation accumulated from his experience at Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券), and gave bonuses to stimulate employees' productivity.
"I'm devoted to my job as an insurance recruit," he said.
Pai graduated from the Hsinpu Institute of Technology (which became St. John's University), and obtained an EMBA (executive master's in business administration) degree from National Taiwan University in 2002.
"By having innovative merchandise and marketing methods and offering creative insurance policies, we aim to boost morale and the company's exposure, although these factors cannot immediately bring in massive profits," he said.
Ghost month insurance
The 20-day "ghost month" insurance policies attracted more than 8,000 customers and raked in NT$1.6 million (US$48,000). Meanwhile, the one-month an taisui insurance services pumped in over NT$10 million in premiums.
The company's market share in the non-life sector has climbed from 5.85 percent in 2003 to 6.28 percent last year, according to the company's Web site.
The company's financial statements showed NT$98 million in pre-tax profits for the first eight months of the year, or NT$0.28 per share. The company, with NT$9 billion in available funds, or working capital, has applied to raise its overseas investments from the current 10 percent to 15 percent.
Susan Chu (朱素徵), director at the Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), a local affiliate of Standard & Poor's, praised the company's innovativeness and its aggressive efforts to push up revenues, describing its performance as "so far so good."
However, the company might face transitional challenges in future, as now it is shifting focus from the commercial segment -- with large enterprises such as airlines or semiconductor manufacturers as major customers -- to also emphasize a small-risk personal line, such as personal insurance or services offered to small- and medium-sized enterprises.
The credit rating agency gave it a "twAA-" long-term rating with a stable outlook. While Moody's Investors Service gave it a "Baa1" rating in November last year.
"Central Insurance did increase its market share during the past two years as it sold more personal insurance products. We will continue to keep an eye on its performance during this transitional period and expect it to become a growth seeker," she said.
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