Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), the main subsidiary and the biggest profit source of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), yesterday said it expects its first-year premiums to grow by double-digit percentages to about NT$100 billion (US$3.16 billion) this year from last year.
Under the challenges posed by market saturation and continuously low interest rates, Shin Kong Life saw its first-year premiums last year drop to a total of NT$90 billion, ranking fourth among local life insurers.
Shin Kong expects its expansion into niche markets, such as long-term care insurance and foreign currency-denominated policies, to help the company’s first-year premiums bounce back.
Shin Kong Life president Jason Tsai (蔡雄繼) said the nation’s life insurance sector would see slow growth momentum this year, or even a flattish period.
Bucking the downtrend, Shin Kong Life plans to hire 3,500 insurance sales agents, a rise of 5 percent of its total workforce, to sell more policies, Tsai said.
Shin Kong Financial posted NT$7.79 billion, or NT$0.69 per share, in net profit last year, a decline of 26.7 percent from a year earlier, mainly due to lower-than-expected performance in its life insurance arm, the company’s stock filing exchange data showed.
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