JAKARTA: PT Asuransi Tokio Marine Indonesia, a general insurance company, plans to tap opportunities in life insurance segment.
The company will seek any opportunities, including acquisition, to have life insurance business line, said Asuransi Tokio Marine President Director Mitsutaka Sato.
“We have been running in general insurance, not yet the business of health and life insurance. We plan to enter the segment. Life insurance is very promising. The opportunity is big,” he told Bisnis yesterday.
The company’s decision follows the step of its parent, Japan-based Tokio Marine Asia, which has recently built a life insurance company in India.
Tokio Marine will provide protections on health and against personal accident. Thus, the company is reviewing products and concepts of life insurance.
Starting operation in Indonesia in 1975, Tokio Marine provides protection against losses in automotive, property, and marine cargo.
Through October, the company posted premiums of US$55 million, increasing 10% from the same period last year. Tokio Marine expects to generate premiums of US$70 million for the whole year.
Sato revealed that property insurance contributed 38%, or US$20.9 million, to total premium. In the meantime, automotive and marine cargo insurance contributed 27%, or US$15 million, respectively in the first ten months of the year.
Tokio Marine is one of Japanese insurers operating in Indonesia. Its peers include Nipponkoa, Sompo Japan, Mitsui Sumitomo Metlife, and Aioi Life.
Targeting Indonesia
Recently, many Japanese insurance companies are interested in expanding to Indonesia, considering a big room to grow.
Indonesia has a large potential market for insurance industry, said Fudej I Hama, president of The Non-Life Insurance Institute of Japan.
Such condition is different from that in Japan, in which the growth of insurance industry seems stagnant because of high penetration.
“Indonesia has a large population. Besides, while penetration of insurance business is still low, the trend is rising” he said.
In the meantime, the premium growth of insurance companies in Japan has been declining in the past few years following deregulation in 1996. (T04/NOM)
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