Samsung Life: business bellwether

Samsung Life Insurance is the country’s primary player by any measure with assets amounting to more than 146 trillion won ($133 billion) last year with a net profit of 1.9 trillion won last year.

Based on the exploits, Samsung Life was picked by Fortune magazine as one of the world’s top 500 companies this year, the only Korean financial entity on the list.

The company boasts of unrivaled capacity in asset management ― some 500 experts chalk up pretty profits through various alternative investments, retail finance, corporate finance and real estate.

They run up to 100 trillion won not only in Korea but also outside of the country as the firm has invested a total of 12.4 trillion won in overseas markets as of the end of March.

The company sees global markets as its new growth engine and advanced into such nations as China and Thailand where it strives to substantially jack up its scale down the road.

Samsung Life CEO Park Keun-hee said that the company would keep moving forward.

``In recent years particularly in the midst of the global financial crisis, we initiated a number of deliberate actions to continue to grow and maintain our market leadership in protection and retirement segments. Our rigorous and disciplinary approaches resulted in historical financial results in 2010,’’ Park said on its Web site.

``Looking forward, profitability and growth are our top priority. We remain cautiously optimistic that our long heritage, strong financial strength, trusted financial brand and commitment to customers will continue to fuel growth.’’

Samsung Life netted over 1.9 trillion won in profits during the fiscal year 2010, which spans between April 2010 and March 2011. It marked the first time for a local insurer to top the 1 trillion won plateau in yearly net profits.