Yuanta Life Insurance Co (元大人壽保險), the life insurance arm of Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), yesterday said it aims to raise its market share to 3 percent, from less than 1 percent now, by focusing on long-term insurance policies.
Yuanta Financial, which is better known for its securities and banking business, last year completed its acquisition of New York Life Insurance’s local unit and renamed the subsidiary Yuanta Life.
“Although Yuanta Life’s scale is still small, the support and resources offered by the parent company could give it some advantages over independent players in development and expansion,” Yuanta Life chairman Jason Wang (王正新) told a media briefing.
Wang said that in terms of first-year premiums, the life insurer currently has a market share of about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, but hopes to raise it to 3 percent over the longer term.
Yuanta Life will focus on the sale of long-term insurance policies, where it has a market share of about 1 percent, to improve its overall scale, Wang said.
Following its fundraising last year, Yuanta Life’s risk-based capital ratio has risen to 600 percent, offering solid support for its expansion plans, he said.
In related news, Yuanta Financial said it would raise the meal allowance for employees by NT$600 (US$19.10) per month in response to the government’s call.
Starting Wednesday next week, its employees, numbering about 9,000, will see their monthly meal allowance rise to NT$2,400. The company estimated that the increase would add about NT$70 million a year to its expenditure on human resources.
In other news, the Financial Supervisory Commission has approved Union Insurance Co’s (旺旺友聯產物保險) application to raise its stake in the Thailand-based China Insurance (Thai) Co Ltd.
Union Insurance plans to invest an additional NT$39.66 million, which would raise its shareholding from 15 percent to 62 percent, the commission said in a statement.
The move would allow Union Insurance to gain control over the Thai insurer and make it a subsidiary, it said.
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