Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Reports 19% YoY Growth in H1 Net Profit... Heavy Rain Damage Estimated at 14 Billion KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance recorded solid results in the first half of this year due to overall loss ratio improvements in major businesses such as automobile insurance and general insurance. The company estimated the actual damage amount from the recent heavy rain to be in the range of 14 billion KRW.

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance announced on the 11th that it recorded a net profit of 749.9 billion KRW in the first half of this year. Excluding the one-time special dividend paid by Samsung Electronics in the first half of last year, the net profit growth rate was 18.9%.

The gross written premium, which refers to sales, increased by 1.3% from last year to 9.8875 trillion KRW.

For the second quarter, net profit was 340.8 billion KRW, up 9.0% compared to the same period last year. Operating profit increased by 8.4% to 490.1 billion KRW, and sales rose 1.8% to 5.0028 trillion KRW.

By insurance category for the first half, all business sectors showed growth: general insurance by 10.0%, automobile insurance by 0.9%, and long-term insurance by 0.3%.

The combined ratio (loss ratio + expense ratio), which measures insurance operational efficiency, decreased by 1.8 percentage points from the previous year to 99.7%, reflecting a pursuit of qualitative growth focused on profitability.

Looking at the loss ratios by insurance category, general insurance improved by 3.2 percentage points to 69.3% compared to the same period last year, due to risk management efforts aimed at reducing profit volatility.

Long-term insurance showed a stabilizing trend due to regulatory strengthening by financial authorities related to excessive claims and payment reviews of actual loss insurance, recording 81.1%, down 1.8 percentage points from the previous year. The improvement in cataract loss ratio in the second quarter also had an impact.

Automobile insurance recorded a loss ratio of 76.5%, improving by 2.5 percentage points from the previous year, as accident rates decreased due to rising oil prices and COVID-19, along with continuous efforts to reduce losses.

For the second half, the automobile insurance loss ratio is expected to rise slightly compared to the first half but is generally anticipated to continue improving compared to the previous year.

The damage caused by the heavy rain that struck the central region in recent days is expected to be minimal. As of 7 a.m. on the day, 3,167 damaged vehicles were reported due to the heavy rain, with estimated damage costs of 51.1 billion KRW.

However, since the company operates reinsurance riders related to flood damage by default, the company projected the total damage amount to be about 14.5 billion KRW.

Hong Seong-woo, CFO of Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, said, "Despite the ongoing internal and external uncertainties, we achieved results exceeding those of the previous year. Although the business environment is expected to be challenging in the second half due to inflation and concerns about a global economic downturn, we will continue growth focused on profitability and efficiency improvements to secure a stable profit base."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.