China's first joint venture life insurer Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance Co Ltd (MSL) expects its premium earnings to rise rapidly this year, on the strength of quick geographical expansion in the past two years, top executives said in Shanghai on Friday.

 

"Based on what we knew (about licence applications and new office openings) a few months ago, we expect at least 50 percent growth in our premium earnings," said Dominic D'Alessandro, president and CEO of Manulife Financial, the foreign parent company of MSL and a leading Canada-based financial services group.

 

The Shanghai-based joint venture insurer posted 700 million yuan (US$87.5 million) in total premium income in 2005, an increase of 17.5 percent over the previous year.

 

The company's premium growth outpaced the market average in Shanghai last year, but lagged behind the rate posted by the city's foreign-invested insurers.

 

Premiums collected by all Shanghai-based life insurers rose by 5.4 percent to 24.4 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion) in 2005. Insurance premiums gathered by 24 foreign-invested insurers rose by 27.1 percent to 5.82 billion yuan (US$727 million), according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) Shanghai Bureau.

 

In 10 years time, the joint venture insurer expects its premium income to be 10 times its current figure, said D'Alessandro. A similar growth rate is also expected in its total assets, geographical presence, and number of employees.

 

Apart from banking on its traditional whole life policies to achieve the target growth, the company is experimenting with a portfolio of innovative products such as juvenile products and investment-linked products. The company is also looking into the investment management business, revealed D'Alessandro.

 

"We are attracted by the opportunities to manage money on behalf of other finance institutions, such as mutual funds," he said. "When the market here needs those services, we would like to offer them."

 

D'Alessandro made the 10-year projection at a time when the company is celebrating its 10th year of operations in China.

 

Manulife-Sinochem began operations in Shanghai in November 1996.

 

The joint venture insurer's Chinese parent company is China Foreign Economic and Trade Trust & Investment Company, a member of the State-owned chemical industry giant Sinochem Corporation. Manulife Financial holds a 51 per cent stake of MSL, while Sinochem holds the remaining 49 percent.

 

To date, MSL has opened or received approval to open six branch offices and seven sales offices in China, with additional applications being processed. Most of the 13 licences approved have been obtained in the past a couple of years, when China was opening its insurance market to foreign players as part its WTO commitment.

 

Most restrictions on foreign insurers' operations in China (including geographical and product restrictions) had been removed by the end of 2004, as part of China's WTO commitments concerning the insurance sector.

 

The only major remaining restriction is the requirement on foreign life insurance companies to form joint ventures with domestic partners.

 

(China Daily March 11, 2006)