Samsung Life Insurance Q1 OP triples, net income quadruples on yr

[Photo by Samsung Life Insurance Co.]

South Korea’s top life insurer Samsung Life Insurance Co. saw its bottom line for the first quarter more than quadruple from a year earlier thanks largely to special dividends from Samsung Electronics Co. and bullish stock market.

The company announced in a regulatory filing on Friday that its consolidated net profit surged a whopping 334.8 percent against a year ago and 273.6 percent from a quarter ago to 1.12 trillion won ($991.67 million) in the January-March period.

Operating profit soared 256.2 percent on year and 171.9 percent on quarter to 1.33 trillion won while revenue fell 3.5 percent on year but gained 14.3 percent on quarter to 10 trillion won.

The company attributed the improvement in bottom line to special dividends from Samsung Electronics Co. which amounted to 801.9 billion won and reversal in variable insurance guarantee reserves thanks to a boom in stock market.

Samsung Life Insurance is the largest shareholder in Samsung Electronics with an 8.51 percent stake.

The life insurer owned 334.6 trillion won in total assets as of the end of March. The ratio of risk-based capital (RBC), the minimum capital an insurer must hold to protect investors and a barometer of financial stability, reached 332 percent, far exceeding the industry average of 297.3 percent.

Its value of new business, which measures the profitability of a business that can be generated during a whole insurance period from current premium contract, climbed 19.6 percent to 384 billion won over the same period.

Shares of Samsung Life Insurance finished Friday down 1.62 percent at 84,900 won in Seoul.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]