Cathay Life Insurance (國泰人壽), the life insurance arm under Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), yesterday vowed to maintain its 30 percent market share — the nation’s largest — in first-year premiums for this year, Cathay Financial president Chen Tsu-pei (陳祖培) told an investors’ conference yesterday.
The life insurer also aims to increase its sales of high-margin products such as traditional life, health and accident policies to reap another 10 percent growth in policy values in the year to come to boost its net worth, Chen said.
The insurer’s net worth had increased by NT$59.2 billion (US$1.9 billion) to NT$113 billion as of December, up 109 percent year-on-year, with a risk-based capital ratio of between 250 percent and 300 percent, the company said.
Last year, the life insurer posted NT$26.2 billion in first-year premiums, up from NT$20.6 billion the previous year.
Its total premiums reached NT$49 billion last year, up from 44 billion in 2008.
VOW
The life insurer, moreover, vowed to beef up overseas investments in bonds and equities to account for 40 percent of its total asset portfolio, valued at NT$2.46 trillion, up from a combined 33.8 percent.
To accelerate its cross-strait expansion, the financial service provider’s banking arm, Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行), will first prioritize opening branches in China before possibly establishing a wholly owned subsidiary there.
Chen said the lender would not rule out acquiring a stake in a Chinese bank, but did not elaborate.
Cathay United Bank currently has a representative office in Shanghai, which the lender plans to upgrade to a branch after the Financial Supervisory Commission last week revised three statutes to allow local banks, securities houses and insurers to expand into China, while opening Taiwan’s financial sector to cross-strait investment.
Cathay Life, meanwhile, has a 50-50 joint insurance venture with China Eastern Airlines Corp (中國東方航空), which operates more than 30 branches in China.
During yesterday’s conference, Cathay Financial unveiled last year’s financial results to investors, with NT$11.1 billion in net incomes, or NT$1.14 per share. The figure was up from NT$2.2 billion in 2008, or NT$0.23 per share.
ASSET QUALITY
The company also boasted an outperforming asset quality with its capital adequacy ratio hitting 144.4 percent and the banking arm’s bank for international settlements ratio and tier-one capital ratio at 12.13 percent and 9.93 percent respectively.
Cathay United Bank was the biggest profit contributor after reporting NT$8.7 billion in net incomes for last year, followed by Cathay Life’s NT$2.7 billion.
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