SRI AYUDHYA General Insurance (SAGI) has restructured its product mix to reduce its loss ratio in motor insurance, said Rowan D’Arcy, president and chief executive officer.
The restructuring appears to have increased expenses and lowered profit on underwriting during the first half, but eventually things will return to normal, he said.
In the first six months, SAGI reported profit on underwriting of Bt267.2 million, down by 10.1 per cent from Bt297.3 million in the same period last year, while operating expenses rose to Bt231.7 million from Bt216.2 million.
However, focusing more on second-class-plus and third-class-plus motor-insurance policies resulted in premiums written in the first six months of Bt1.563 billion, up by 2.1 per cent year on year from Bt1.53 billion.
Net profit in the first half was down by 28.6 per cent year on year to Bt70.3 million, which D'Arcy attributed to the downturn in interest rates affecting its return on investment.
The company is reviewing its investment portfolio to comply with current interest rates.
Its investment portfolio is Bt3.6 billion.
He said SAGI hoped the product-mix restructuring would reduce expenses and improve the loss ratio, which in the second quarter stood at 46 per cent, unchanged from the first quarter.
"But in the next quarters, the loss ratio will be better," he said.
After the restructuring, premium income from motor insurance in May increased by 15.74 per cent, versus 0.92 per cent in the market. Motor insurance contributes 32 per cent of total premiums written by SAGI.
Income from marine-insurance premiums did not fare as well, however. It plunged by 6.46 per cent, compared with the market's decline of 1.85 per cent.
D'Arcy explained that even though SAGI is a top-five provider of marine insurance, the company decided to strict in underwriting this segment because the ages of ship are old and that could pose high risk to the insurance firm. Moreover, the economic circumstances and the export slowdown have had an impact on marine cargo insurance.
He admitted that it hard to predict its premium target this year that will increase or down from last year as it did at Bt3.1 billion due the motor insurance in May grew less than 1 per cent and insurance industry in the past three years grew lower than GDP from a two time growth against GDP. However, The company hopes that the government projects in the second half will generate a positive outlook for the insurance industry.
He added that the company needed to increase capital efficiency because its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was 947 per cent, much higher than the minimum requirement of 125 per cent.
Compared with the peers, CAR ratio was at 400-500 per cent, which D'Arcy noted that under the Solvency II Standard Formula, which the capital minimum requirement will be 140 per cent, the calculating of CAR will be more complicated, therefore, the company considers three options to make its capital to more efficiency and to comply with the Solvency II is the reduction of registered capital, the mergers & acquisitions and the business expansion.
Its CAR should be 500 per cent under the Solvency II Standard Formula, he said.
To achieve this, the company is considering three options: a reduction in registered capital, mergers or acquisitions, and business expansion.