Hanwha Life Insurance said on the 12th that first-quarter net income on a consolidation basis was tallied at 381.6 billion won, up 29% from a year earlier. Revenue was 9.9852 trillion won and operating profit was 480.8 billion won, up 54.7% and 29.5% over the same period.
Hanwha Life Insurance said profitability improved as protection-type annualized premium equivalent (APE—protection insurance with premiums paid once a year in a lump sum) expanded and the contractual service margin (CSM) of newly signed contracts increased. CSM is an indicator that converts into present value the profit an insurer expects to earn in the future through a contract.
First-quarter protection APE increased 1.8% to 700.3 billion won, and new business CSM rose 25.1% to 610.9 billion won. As sales of death benefit policies, which require long-term premium payments, increased, new business CSM profitability rose from 7.8 times in the first quarter of last year to 9.8 times in the first quarter of this year. This means that if an insurer spends 1 won on acquisition fees, it can earn 9.8 won in the future.
Profitability also improved thanks to balanced growth in results from major domestic and overseas subsidiaries, including the corporate insurance agency (GA) subsidiary such as Hanwha Life Financial Services, and those in non-life insurance, asset management, and securities. The GA subsidiary posted 23.3 billion won in net income, domestic financial subsidiaries 145.7 billion won, and major overseas subsidiaries 45.3 billion won.
The risk-based capital ratio (K-ICS), a measure of financial soundness, is expected to be 162%, up 4.5 percentage points from the previous quarter.
A Hanwha Life Insurance official said, "Thanks to stable, protection-focused growth and efforts to improve profitability, we are maintaining a solid business foundation, with both new business CSM and in-force CSM continuing to expand."