Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽保險) last week reported a net loss of NT$6.72 billion (US$224.7 million) for the first half of the year, representing losses per share of NT$2.31, due to losses from investments in Russian bonds and global securities.
The losses in the first six months expanded from NT$3.3 billion in the first quarter and were the largest for the same six-month period in the company’s history, making Mercuries the only life insurer in the red among its local large and mid-sized peers.
The company’s financial statement released on Thursday showed it had credit losses of NT$900 million from holdings of Russian bonds. It also posted realized losses of NT$7.38 billion in securities investment after using a stop-loss mechanism to limit further losses amid market routs.
To enhance its financial strength, Mercuries earlier this month announced that it would issue 1 billion new common shares to raise capital, its second rights issue this year, to improve its risk-based capital (RBC) ratio.
The company on Thursday did not update its RBC ratio, which stood at 203.62 percent at the end of last year, slightly up from the regulatory threshold of 200 percent.
On July 13, Mercuries sold an office building in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) to China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) for NT$8.35 billion, with an investment gain of NT$1.26 billion, in an effort to improve its financial profile.
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