The mainland's top non-life insurer PICC Property & Casualty's net profit surged to 1.1 billion yuan (US$137.5 million) in the first half of 2006, an increase of 24.7 percent year-on-year.

 

"Thanks to the sustained growth of China's economy and the rapid development of China's non-life insurance market, our company has achieved good operating results in the first half of 2006," said PICC Property & Casualty's CEO Wang Yi yesterday in Hong Kong.

 

The company's turnover amounted to 36.98 billion yuan (US$4.6 billion) in the first half of the year, an increase of 6 percent from a year ago.

 

Its investment return soared to 1.66 billion yuan (US$207.5 million) in the same period, representing a substantial increase of 1.7 billion yuan (US$212.5 million) over the net investment losses of 36 million yuan (US$4.5 million) in the first half of 2005.

 

Its net investment income rose to 781 million yuan (US$97.6 million) from 691 million yuan (US$86.4 million) in the previous year, or an increase of 13 percent year-on-year.

 

Wang said that his company would try to maintain its car insurance market share by taking advantage of Beijing's insurance policies such as the July 1 Regulations on Mandatory Traffic Accident Liability Insurance for Motor Vehicles.

 

"We will further strengthen our efforts in selling motor vehicle insurance in China to maintain our 49 percent motor vehicle insurance market share there," said Wang.

 

"We will soon use the Internet and telephone in one-third and one-fifth of China's cities respectively to further promote and sell the insurance."

 

Despite its satisfactory results for the first half of 2006, the company saw its non-life insurance market share in the country shrink to 47 percent in the first half of 2006 from 55 percent a year ago.

 

"There are about 36 insurance companies operating in China now and therefore the competition is becoming much more intense," said Wang.

 

"We think that the overall underwriting fees in China will drop further in the second half of 2006 compared with the first half of the year."

 

China's overall underwriting fee rate slumped by 17 percent in the first half of 2006.

 

As such, PICC Property & Casualty saw its underwriting fee rate for motor vehicle and properties drop by 12 percent and 12.5 percent respectively in the period, though the company managed an increase of 23.5 percent on its overall underwriting fee rate, 2.2 percentage points up from the previous year.

 

"If Beijing steps up its efforts in monitoring and regulating the non-life insurance market to make the market development more rational and standard, decreases in the underwriting fee rate may slow down in the second half of the year," said Wang. "But the tendency to decrease will go on."

 

Wang said that his company would do "what's necessary" to maintain its non-life insurance market share in China.

 

"If our market share really shrinks further in the second half of 2006, it will definitely not shrink dramatically," Wang added, without giving any further details.

 

(China Daily August 22, 2006)