By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
Kyobo Life Insurance, which marks its 50th anniversary Thursday, is aiming for assets worth 100 trillion won ($100 billion) by 2015.
``The past 50 years involved a history of challenge and passion that we spent with customers. We should make a leap forward as a company lasting more than a century and respected by the community,'' said Kyobo CEO Shin Chang-jae in a statement to employees.
Kyobo is synonymous with the history of Korean life insurance. Shin Yong-ho, the late father of CEO Shin, established the company in 1958 as Daehan Kyoyuk Insurance. Daehan was an education insurance company with the mission, ``Promotion of national education and creation of domestic capital.''
Shin Yong-ho reportedly said at the company's first small office, ``Let's not shrink over our humble opening ceremony today. Even in developed countries, it takes half a century for an insurance company to settle. We, however, will create a global company and build the best company building at the best spot in Seoul within 25 years,'' he said according to the insurer's chronicle.
The founder kept his promise, as education insurance fit the Korean zeal for scholarship. The company also built Kyobo Building in Jongno, downtown Seoul, in 1980, three years earlier than promised. Shin Yong-ho also won the Founder's Award from the International Insurance Society in 1983.
The company's assets went from a mere 22 million won in the first year to one trillion won after 25 years and 10 trillion won by 1993. Kyobo will soon break 50 trillion won in assets.
Sales last year reached 12.3 trillion won, ranking 20th among single business units in the country. Kyobo has paid out 115 trillion won in premiums and holds more than 10 million subscriptions.
Shin Chang-jae, who quit as a medical professor at Seoul National University to inherit his father's company, announced targets of 100 trillion won in assets and one trillion won in profits by 2015.
The Asian financial crisis that drove many Korean businesses into bankruptcy was a critical moment for Kyobo. The company lost more than two trillion won as conglomerates doing business with Kyobo collapsed one by one.
Despite having a deficit of 254 billion won in 2000, the company eventually overcame its crisis without state assistance. Kyobo focused on changes and innovation instead of competition to increase bulk.
In 2007, net profit posted 433.5 billion won, and the company recently earned an ''A2'' rating from Moody's.
The insurer is also considering advancing into the potentially lucrative Chinese market and is focusing on globalizing its asset management division with AXA Group of France.