Meritz enjoys growth while major non-life insurers falter

The Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance head office at the Meritz Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul / Yonhap

By Jhoo Dong-chan

Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance enjoyed solid growth in its earnings during the first three months this year. This is in stark contrast to the industry trend in the same period where other non-life insurers posted disappointing earnings.

Domestic non-life insurers managed to post growth in sales, but operating and net profits failed to reflect their external growth. Of them, Meritz Fire was the only insurer to demonstrate growth in sales as well as earnings.

Meritz's sales grew 12.1 percent year-on-year to 1.9 trillion won ($1.59 billion) in the first quarter of the year. It also posted a 90.3 billion won operating profit, up 3.5 percent from a year ago.

Meritz's net profit grew 4.3 percent year-on-year to 65.8 billion won in the period.

“Unlike other non-life insurers, Meritz's dependence on car insurance wasn't really high,” a Meritz general agency planner said.

“Other insurers have sustained mounting loss ratios in the sector while Meritz has focused on personal insurance products such as actual insurance.”

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance said in its regulatory filing it posted 4.59 trillion won in sales during the first three months this year, up 1 percent from a year ago.

Operating and net profits of the nation's largest non-life insurer were, however, down 23.4 percent and 23.3 percent, respectively, in the period from a year ago.

Likewise, the sales of Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance jumped 1.1 percent year-on-year to 3.23 trillion won in the first quarter of the year, but both its operating and net profit contracted 16.4 percent and 27.1 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

DB Insurance's sales was also up 2 percent year-on-year to mark 3.13 trillion won in the period, but both operating and net profit were down 18.9 percent and 10 percent to 128.9 billion won and 99.2 billion won, respectively.

Of the nation's non-life insurers, Hanwha General Insurance was the one that suffered the most in earnings during the period. Its sales jumped 6.2 percent year-on-year to 1.45 trillion won, but operating and net profit crashed 60.7 percent and 65.6 percent to 16.5 billion won and 10.1 billion won, respectively, in the period.