AXA Philippines premium income drops 21% in Q1

MANILA, Philippines – AXA Philippines registered a 21-percent drop in gross premium income to P4.4 billion in the first three months of 2016 from P5.6 billion last year.

“Regular premium sales grew by 16 percent year-on-year. However, single premium sales, affected by significant market volatility in the quarter, contracted by over 40 percent from the same period last year,” the life insurer said in a report yesterday.

A single premium sale refers to a one-time payment of premiums while regular premium sales are graduated or in tranches.

AXA Philippines said a 10-percent increase in annualized premium equivalent (also known as first-year premiums or new business) was recorded in the first quarter as new business rose to P1.1 billion this year from P1 billion in 2015.

Regular premium income grew 24-percent year-on-year despite the decline in single premiums, thus managing a 12-percent growth on weighted premium basis.

Thus, AXA Philippines’ net income improved six percent to P388 million.

Nearly 70 percent of AXA Philippines sales came from its bancassurance channel where its insurance products are sold through the nationwide network of Metrobank and PSBank branches. The traditional agency sales channel accounted for the remaining 30 percent of total new business.

In 2015, AXA Philippines gross premium income expanded to P22.9 billion from P18.4 billion in 2014, marking a record year for the joint venture insurance company between Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) and AXA Group of France.

It likewise increased market share in the country’s life insurance industry to 12.1 percent from 11.6 percent in 2014, ranking it second among the 30 life insurers.