Growing Expectations for Renewal of Foreign Life Insurance CEO with Strong Performance
Song Young-rok MetLife·Lee Jae-won Fubon Hyundai Term Ends in September
[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] Foreign life insurance companies that were the subject of rumors about withdrawing from Korea last year have changed. Some have achieved "surprise" strong performance, and with financial soundness secured through support from overseas headquarters, CEO reappointments are even expected.
According to the insurance industry on the 8th, the American company MetLife Life Insurance recently decided at its board meeting to hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on August 23 to handle the reappointment of CEO Song Young-rok. CEO Song joined MetLife Life Insurance in 2007 as a finance director and was promoted to CEO and president in September 2018.
MetLife Life Insurance, frequently mentioned in sale rumors, is currently enjoying a boom. Last year, its standalone net profit increased by 35.2% from the previous year to 137 billion KRW, and in the first quarter of this year, net profit surged nearly sevenfold to 70.9 billion KRW compared to 10.4 billion KRW in the same period last year.
The reason for MetLife's strong performance can be found in its solid exclusive agent organization and variable insurance benefiting from the recent stock market upswing. Among the 2,475 domestic members of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), the world's top expert group in insurance and financial planning with over 72,000 members in 70 countries, 636 belong to MetLife, ranking first in membership. MetLife shares know-how by exchanging information with its U.S. headquarters on agent training programs and sales and marketing capability development.
Performance continues in the variable insurance market as well. The first quarter's variable initial insurance premiums increased by 199.2% year-on-year to 132.8 billion KRW. In March, MetLife launched four overseas equity funds investing in globally promising sectors such as IT, healthcare, communication, and Chinese companies, bringing its total variable insurance funds to 25.
Lee Jae-won, CEO of Fubon Hyundai Life Insurance, whose term expires in September, is also expected to be reappointed. Recently, he successfully completed a paid-in capital increase worth 458 billion KRW from Taiwan's Fubon Life Insurance, securing financial soundness.
Due to this capital increase, Taiwan Fubon Life Insurance's stake expanded from 62.1% to 77.4%. Since 2015, Taiwan Fubon Life Insurance has invested a total of 1.27 trillion KRW in the Korean market.
Fubon Hyundai is expected to launch full-scale business activities based on capital expansion. It recorded a net profit of 83.7 billion KRW in the first quarter, nearly matching last year's annual net profit of 95.1 billion KRW.
CEO Lee took office as CEO of Hyundai Life in January 2017 and has continued to lead the company since its name changed to Fubon Hyundai Life Insurance in September 2018.
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Based on telemarketing (TM) and financial planner (FP) channels, the company plans to reactivate the general agency (GA) channel in the second half of the year. Additionally, Luo Jianrong, CEO of Tongyang Life, and Xi Ye Zhuqiang, CEO of ABL Life, each secured their third consecutive term in March.
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