Prudential retains top spot in non-life insurance

MANILA, Philippines - Prudential Guarantee and Assurance Inc. (Prudential Guarantee) has retained top spot in terms of net premium written (NPW) among the country’s 70 non-life insurance companies in 2014. From P3.19 billion in 2013, NPW rose by 11.4 percent to P3.54 billion in 2014.

NPW is the sum of all types of insurance premiums which a company may collect throughout the whole duration of existing insurance policies minus the costs like agent’s commissions or payments made for reinsurance.

Total industry NPW in the same period was valued at P31.1 billion, up 15.64 percent from the 2013 figure of P26.9 billion.

Malayan Insurance Co. Inc. (Malayan Insurance) kept a tight hold on second spot with NPW valued at P2.36 billion followed by BPI/MS Insurance Corp. with P1.92 billion.

In strong fourth is Charter Ping An (formerly Philippine Charter Insurance Corp.), a member of GT Capital Inc., with NPW valued at P1.95 billion.

Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc, head of the Insurance Commission (IC), noted that there were changes in the next five non-life insurers as Federal Phoenix Assurance Co. landed in fifth with premiums placed at P 1.8 billion.

While UCPB General Insurance Co. kept a tight grip on sixth spot with NPW worth P1.5 billion, while MAPFRE Insurance Corp. slipped to seventh overall.

In 2013, Federal Phoenix was seventh while Mapfre Insurance was fifth.

Pioneer Insurance & Surety swapped places with Standard Insurance Co. last year. Pioneer Insurance landed eight with premiums worth P1.3 billion while Standard Insurance settled for just P966 million.

In fact, the top 10 insurers account for roughly half of total NPW last year or approximately P17.8 billion of the total P31.1 billion.

Nonetheless, Dooc pointed out the non-life sector performed exceptionally well with income growing by nearly 200 percent to P2.4 billion.

“In the absence of any major natural or man-made disasters, the non-life insurers performed exceptionally well,” he said.

The life insurers could only report a positive 1.3 percent in terms of total net earnings, while the entire industry last year reported a net growth of 12 percent.

The IC commissioner said that the strong construction activities of the property sector, double-digit growth in auto sales, and the over-all economic expansion of the country, were responsible for the positive growth of the non-life insurance sector.

However, non-life insurers failed to generate new investments last year as it fell from P61.4 billion in 2013 to just P60.5 billion.

Paid up capital meanwhile grew by just 8.6 percent to P25.5 billion.

The IC forecasts the number of players will be further reduced as the minimum paid up capital of P350 million will be raised to P550 million starting next year.

“It is not surprising if the (non-life insurance) sector will be reduced to nearly half by the end of 2015,” Dooc said, adding that mergers & acquisitions as well as consolidations will be the order of the day in 2015.