Life insurer Tokio Marine aims to be a large player
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MEDIUM-SIZED life insurer Tokio Marine Life Insurance (Thailand) has set its sights on becoming a large player in the sector in the next three years, with a target of achieving first-year premium of Bt3 billion and total premium of Bt7 billion-Bt8 billion
Over much of the past five years, Tokio Marine was a small company that attempted to build its portfolio size by focusing on the agency channel, resulting in its currently firmly being in the medium-sized life-insurer category.
“The next step that the group expects from us is to be a large company in order to compete with our bigger rivals and provide competitive prices for products and services to our customers,” said chief executive officer Lim Kean Hin.
Achieving large-company status will not mean big changes for Tokio Marine Life Insurance, but the insurer needs to have a sufficiently large business scale to offer competitively priced premiums to customers, he stressed.
The mark of being a big life insurer is not the company’s ranking, but its target is to achieve first-year premium of Bt3 billion and gross premium of Bt7 billion-Bt8 billion by the end of 2017, he explained.
Last year, Tokio Marine Life Insurance (Thailand) had first-year premium of Bt915 million and gross premium totalling Bt2.55 billion.
The CEO said the company had set out four missions in order to achieve the goal: to grow faster than previously planned; to increase competitiveness in all distribution channels; to concentrate on and attach importance to potential projects; and to develop sales strategies in line with the customer trend.
Japan-based Tokio Marine Life Insurance will synergise with the regional office and group companies, including Tokio Marine Insurance (Thailand), so that it can share what every part of the operation has achieved and expertise in key areas such as the agency channel, said the CEO.
The Thai unit this year projects first-year premium of Bt1.245 billion and total premium of Bt4.46 billion, with the agency channel being the major contributor with a targeted Bt1.04 billion and Bt3.34 billion, respectively.
During the first quarter, Tokio Marine Life Insurance (Thailand) generated first-year premium of Bt260 million, up 34 per cent year on year, and total premium of Bt895 million, some 35 per cent higher than in the same period last year.
Somphot Keitkraival, deputy CEO as well as chief distribution officer and chief marketing officer, said that to achieve large-company status, the company would reinforce pension insurance, a category in which Tokio Marine Life Insurance is a market leader.
The company is organising a retirement-planner course for its agents, in cooperation with Chulalongkorn University.
Moreover, the company next month will launch new health products, especially riders that add coverage for policyholders, he said.
One new health rider will help reduce the burden on policyholders in paying premiums in the event of suffering a critical illness.
In such cases, the remaining premiums will be paid by the company, he added.
