Hanwha Life Insurance's consolidated net profit for the first half of this year surged from a year earlier, nearing 1 trillion won. New business contractual service margin (CSM) topped 1.3001 trillion won, delivering the largest first-half result since the adoption of the new accounting standard (IFRS 17).
Hanwha Life Insurance said on the 12th that first-half net profit on a consolidation basis was 904.5 billion won, up 96% from a year earlier. Revenue was 22.5892 trillion won, up 58.6% over the same period.
On a separate basis, net profit rose 183.9% to 510.2 billion won. Insurance profit was 285.3 billion won, up 62% from a year earlier, and investment profit jumped 776% to 354.8 billion won. Improved results in the insurance and investment institutional sectors drove the increase in net profit.
Subsidiaries' results also added strength. Hanwha General Insurance posted 215.3 billion won, Hanwha Investment & Securities 55.7 billion won, and overseas subsidiaries 103 billion won in net profit. The combined net profit of subsidiaries in the first half was about 500.9 billion won. The share of profit and loss from overseas subsidiaries rose to 11%.
New business CSM, which represents future profit, also rose sharply. First-half new business CSM was 1.3001 trillion won, up 40.5% from a year earlier. It is the highest first-half figure since IFRS 17 was introduced. After 610.9 billion won in the first quarter, 689.2 billion won was secured in the second quarter.
Expanded sales of whole life policies with medium- to long-term premiums led to improved profitability. In the second quarter, new business profitability for whole life insurance rose to 10.5 times, and overall new business profitability for the first half climbed to 11 times from 7.2 times last year. As of the end of the first half, in-force CSM was 8.9285 trillion won, up 214.8 billion won from the end of last year. The 13th-month persistency rate was 90%.
Financial soundness also improved. Hanwha Life Insurance expected the first-half-end capital adequacy (K-ICS) ratio to come in at 167%, up 9.5 percentage points from the end of last year. Higher profit and an increase in available capital due to rising interest rates had an impact.
Yoon Jong-guk, chief financial officer of Hanwha Life Insurance, said, "In the second half, we will strengthen product competitiveness centered on whole life policies with medium- to long-term premiums and dementia and long-term care health insurance, and advance our AI-based sales support system," adding, "We will enhance corporate value by securing stable new business CSM and expanding synergies with domestic and overseas subsidiaries."