Falcon targets boost from personal lines
Falcon Insurance, a joint venture of Navakij Insurance and Falcon Insurance (Hong Kong), is attempting to increase premium income from its personal lines to 40 per cent of the total in three years, from 30 per cent now, by using the strategy of "think in
The Hong Kong partner is a subsidiary of Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings.
The company actively penetrated the personal-insurance business last year as it wants to move into niche markets with low competition to maintain a healthy margin, Falcon president Sopa Kanjana-rintr said yesterday.
The corporate business, mainly property insurance, contributes 70 per cent of premium income.
The company introduced dental insurance as the first product under the "think independence" strategy.
Last year, it began selling three personal accident policies in the sport category to ride the trend of sporty consumers.
They are i-Champion, i-Golfer and i-Extreme. The latest is i-Bike, which was launched yesterday.
The company wants to balance its portfolio, and personal insurance provides room to grow, supported by the burgeoning middle class. People now have more wealth and seek out products that respond to their needs. The sports boom is attractive.
I-Bike is personal accident insurance for cycling consumers. It targets 30,000 policies and premium income of Bt75 million within two years.
The company projects premiums from sports insurance at Bt100 million by next year.
"The number of cyclists is mushrooming. We found they currently number 2.25 million," she said.
"And from our internal survey, many people want to ride a bike but doing so for transport in Bangkok is too risky. Therefore, we can help increase their confidence."
I-Bike insurance will become available next month through online channels and the company’s call centre.
Falcon is seeking distribution channels including brokers and bicycle merchants for the i-Bike policy.
The company will soon develop new health-insurance products in line with the concept of "think independence".
Falcon Insurance has not yet reported its performance for 2014, but total premium income was more than Bt1.4 billion in 2013, Sopa said.
However, it expects last year’s premium income to grow by only single digits in line with the economic slowdown.
"We have a positive view on the government’s mega-projects, which could help support property insurance and construction and engineering insurance," Sopa said.
