Bangkok--6 Sep--Krungthai AXA Life Insurance
Mike Plaxton, Chief Executive Officer stated that this is yet another outstanding year for Krungthai AXA Life with new sales of APE Bt 4,613 million or 148% of last year. All channels have contributed significantly to this outstanding result. I will leave David to share with you the financial details but needless to say as CEO I am very proud of this team’s stellar performance.
This is now the sixth consecutive year of outstanding results by Krungthai AXA. Two very strong and committed joint venture partners — Krungthai Bank and AXA along with the best and most engaged team in Thailand are two of the biggest reasons for our success. We offer products of meaning to our customers because we invested the necessary time to find out what they need most. Saifon Sutchasila; Chief Marketing Officer will share with you the exciting Complete Health Solution we are delivering to provide medical assistance to all sectors of Thai Society.
In 2012 we have continued our Corporate Social responsibility work supporting the Rice Bank in northern Thailand, Caravan Health Check all across Thailand and many other initiatives. Top of my list of activities is the work we have been doing with disabled people for the last 2 years. We now employ a number of disabled people in our work place. They asked us 2 years ago to provide “opportunity not charity”. We opened our doors and allowed them to compete for jobs. I am happy to say that today we have 11 disabled people making a major contribution to this company’s success.
David Korunic, Chief Financial Officer revealed that the first 6 months of the year have delivered very strong results for Krungthai AXA Life. Our half-year statutory profits have grown to Bt1.1bn which represents a growth of 33% over the same period last year. This growth was achieved by strong top-line results with total premium income ending the half year at 12.8bn which is a 33% growth. The growth in total premium income was driven by the exceptional growth in New Business as mentioned earlier but also due to high persistency of our inforce block of business which shows the strong belief our customers have in our financial strength. While growing our premium income we have also been able to have strong management of our expense base which ended the half year with a management expense ratio of 6.6% compared to 7% last year. This level is a world class result.
We have 2 strong channels in our agency and bancassurance with a burgeoning third channel in our Corporate Solutions. Agency has grown 49% over 2011 to Bt 2,009 million. The agency growth was due to focusing on the fundamentals of the agency force. Bank sales have grown to Bt 2,434 million or 54% over the same period last year. This growth was due to strong cooperation between Krungthai AXA Life and Krungthai Bank. Our third burgeoning channel is Corporate Solutions and ended the half year at Bt 169 million. We have rechanneled the focus of this channel to concentrate on the Employee Benefits Market.
Invested Assets have grown by 39% over the same period last year and 16% growth compared to December 2011 to end at Bt60.5bn. KAL invested asset split has remained quite stable over the end of last year at Equities 10%, Corporate Bonds 21%, Government Bonds 62%, Policy Loans 2% and Cash and Deposits 5%.
I have been very proud to lead a very diverse team of finance professional to help deliver the excellent results I have mentioned.
Saifon Sutchasila, Chief Marketing Officer stated that this year, we have introduced new innovative product which is key to achieving the ambitious goal on an expansion path to become a top health and protection provider in Thailand. In May 2012, we have launched the ‘Complete Health Solution’ health protection plans that suite boasts a wide range of features.
The launch of ‘Complete Health Solution’ marked the first International Reimbursement Health product to be introduced in Thailand with wide range of benefit levels covering all segments, and needs of all Thais. It offers a range of 4 benefits level and 4 geographic areas of cover to choose from — Thailand, Asia, Worldwide excluding USA, and worldwide including USA with maximum coverage for the top plan of up to Bt100m, with maximum entry up to 80 years old, and guarantee renewal till age 99 years old. This product also uses a particular form of underwriting, referred to as moratorium underwriting. This underwriting system guarantees acceptance for everyone, without the need to undergo a traditional medical underwriting process. Moratorium underwriting makes the buying process much easier for both customers and distributors, as all the customer needs to do is make some simple declarations including any pre-existing conditions they are aware of, which will fall outside their coverage for a specific period of time.
In the second half of the year, we will continue our already successful strategies such as Caravan Health Check which has been running for 4 consecutive years to demonstrating our care and attentive attitudes towards our customers and all Thais by providing free medical check up services across Thailand. So far, we have provided medical check up services to more than 200,000 people. A large scale of Health advertising campaign is also in the making and will be aired in October this year with advertising budget of Bt 150 million.
Thank you for coming to listen to our story today. A story about success. A story about the people that make success. I thank our customers for placing their trust and their savings with Krungthai AXA Life Insurance, said Plaxton.
Mike Plaxton
David Korunic
Saifon Sutchasila