Aeon Insurance eyes Cambodia
Aeon Insurance Service (Thailand), the insurance broker of Aeon Thana Sinsap (Thailand), will study doing business in Cambodia as part of its synergy with Aeon Group, which is constructing its first mall in Phnom Penh.
Managing director Sakarabhop Dhivarakara said yesterday that even though there were only about five insurance companies in Cambodia, Aeon needed to take the time to study this market because of the complicated regulations. Next week the firm will survey the business opportunities there.
Once completed, the new Aeon mall in Phnom Penh will house outlets of the firm’s financial arms, including insurance, to provide a full range of products and services.
Aeon Insurance Service (Thailand) is an amalgamation of ACS Insurance Broker (Thailand) and ACS Life Insurance Broker (Thailand) that became effective yesterday. Aeon Thana Sinsap (Thailand), the parent company, wanted to combine the two companies for flexibility and cost efficiency.
Sakarabhop said the company expected more local insurance brokers would merge to reduce costs and increase competitiveness, anticipating that in the case of his firm the merger would reduce costs by 15 per cent.
He said the company aimed to be a top-five insurance broker next year, up from the eighth place now. It projects premiums of Bt2.15 billion this year and Bt2.5 billion next year. By 2016, the figure is expected to jump to Bt3 billion.
Support by the parent company in terms of customer base, payment services and instalment payments via Aeon credit cards will help boost premium income.
About 80 per cent of customers pay their insurance premiums via instalment plans and the rest pay cash.
Aeon Thana Sinsap has a customer base of more than 6 million, 10 per cent of them with Aeon Insurance Service (Thailand). The company plans to balance the customer proportion to 50:50, bringing in more new customers, as insurance penetration in Thailand is low.
Aeon Thana Sinsap is important for cross-selling other Aeon products to its customers, he said.
The company plans to launch motor insurance to tap customers of MaxValu convenience stores, which is a business unit of Aeon.
Motor insurance is the highlight non-life-insurance product of Aeon Insurance Service, while employee benefits are a highlight product of life insurance.
