Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Allianz Premium Income up 77% in 2007'
Source: The Jakarta Post

Jakarta - PT Allianz Life Indonesia (ALI) and PT Allianz Utama Indonesia reported Tuesday their combined premium income grew by 77 percent to Rp 3.4 trillion (about US$374 million) last year.

ALI made the biggest contribution to the total, with earnings of Rp 2.73 trillion--a 109 percent increase from 2006, while AUI contributed some Rp 674 billion.

"The increase was awesome. It has made us the 7th biggest insurance company in the country, up one notch from our 2006 rank," Allianz Life Indonesia president director Jens Reisch said Monday at the opening of the first new Allianz Center.

ALI focuses on life and health insurance while AUI handles property, vehicles, engineering, casualty and marine cargo insurance. Both are subsidiaries of Allianz Indonesia.

In 2007, both companies had around 690,000 customers in health, pension and general insurance programs. Last year alone the companies recorded around 120,000 new customers (a 23 percent increase from 2006).

"The biggest increase in customers was in life insurance, which increased 28 percent from 225,426 in 2006, to 287,490 in 2007," Reisch said.

Reisch said the two companies were expecting to record a total Rp 4.5 trillion in Gross Written Premiums by the end of this year, up by 32 percent from last year.

This figure combines the total value of AUI's premiums, expected to reach Rp 777 billion this year, and Allianz Life premiums, expected to reach Rp 3.72 trillion.

"We want to implement an 'One-Stop Solution' concept for our customers and business partners by providing a full range of insurance products and services under one strong brand," Reisch said.

The company opened its first Allianz Center in Jakarta, that day, and expects to open six more in six major cities, Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang, Medan, Denpasar and Samarinda.

The center is intended to be a place where people can go for solutions or information for their insurance needs--from vehicles and house to life and health insurance--all in one place.

The company aims to remain focussed on expanding its investment option, sharia funds, launched May 2006.

The sharia fund, Reisch said, had made significant contributions to company profits, with total premium income increasing from Rp 15.8 billion in 2006 to Rp 73.1 billion in 2007.

"We have been cooperating with three large banks, Permata, Danamon and Standard Chartered, for two years, and will surely expand to cooperate with other large banks," Reisch said.