BKI chairman stays on despite SEC action

The Association of Investment Management Companies formally urged BKI’s board of directors to consider corporate governance after the SEC’s action.

“I remained on BKI’s board because BKI did not have business requiring an investment licence like Bangkok Life Assurance Co. However, it will be up to BKI’s board and shareholders to consider whether they need me to resign or not,” Chai said after a press conference yesterday.

He claimed that he did not actually pass on the insider information in the 2014 case investigated by the SEC but nevertheless agreed to pay the Bt500,000 fine and resigned from Bangkok Life Assurance Co’s board.BKI will have a shareholders’ meeting on April 22.

Meanwhile, BKI this year targets new insurance premiums valued at Bt18 billion, up 13 per cent last year’s Bt15.86 billion. The company also targets an increase in return on investment from 2.6 per cent last year to 4 per cent in 2016. The ROI will come from dividend payments from the firms in which the company invests, deposit and savings interest, and investments in the stock market.

Company president Dr Apisit Anantanatarat said that the premium growth would come from its new insurance packages, while the firm is careful to select low-risk customers for its auto-insurance policies. For example, if a certain car model has a high claim ratio, that will increase the premium cost, while policies for models with lower claims, based on the firm’s database and research, will have lower premiums. 

“We believed that our |financial results will achieve this year’s target although |the first two months showed new premiums of only Bt2.9 billion, down 2 per cent from the same period of last year,” |he said.