Thai Samsung targets high growth
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THAI SAMSUNG Life Insurance aims for aggressive growth, following major investment in building up a network of agents and it hopes to break even soon, deputy chief executive officer Banyong Narasavat said.
The company this year targets premiums of Bt1.612 billion, a 31-per-cent growth over Bt1.235 billion last year.
He said Thai Samsung Life would more than double the number of agents this year to 5,000 from 2,018 agents, as they are critical to grow premium revenue.
“The parent company in Korea wants to see top line growth rather than bottom line growth because we are in the stage of building brand awareness and building premiums,” he said.
To achieve top line growth, the company has retained its policy of high rate of return rate to policyholders. While the average returns in the market are a little over 2 per cent, Thai Samsung Life offers a return of 3.75 per cent.
Samsung wants to make Thailand its role model in the international market. Samsung currently has presence in China and Thailand.
Samsung has offices in Indonesia and Vietnam but they are unable to sell polices. Therefore, if Thailand can accelerate growth and meet the bottom line soon Samsung will leverage the success in Thailand in the international market, Banyong said.
The company has allowed agents to sell group insurance this year, he said, as it has seen room for growth in this segment but it must be selected companies.
At present, the company has direct sales to cater to group insurance, which now covers 310 companies, creating 140,000 policies.
The company will increase collaboration with business allies such as Sahapat Group and Thai Samsung Electronics and Korean companies in Thailand to expand group insurance, he said.
Individual customers currently hold 239,000 policies.
The downturn in interest has lowered interest in savings insurance products, which account for 50 per cent of its total premiums, he said. The company will try to add protection insurance for customers, so it should have a high chance of making up more than 50 per cent of portfolio.
