ZhongAn into profit for first time

ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co Ltd said overall profit amounted to around 94.5 million yuan (US$13.2 million) in the first half of 2019, the online insurer’s first profitable financial report since its public listing in Hong Kong in 2017.

Driven by its lifestyle consumption, auto and consumer finance ecosystems, the digital underwriter recorded a total gross written premium of approximately 5.89 billion yuan in the first half, a year-on-year increase of around 14.5 percent, according to its latest interim report. However, growth slowed down compared with 2018.

The January to June profit was the result of company's efforts in optimizing its business portfolio and improving efficiency, it said. The underwriting loss for the first six months narrowed significantly to about 492.2 million yuan, representing a year-on-year decrease of 376 million yuan or approximately 43.3 percent.

The combined ratio improved from around 124 percent for the first half of 2018 to approximately 108.3 percent, representing a year-on-year improvement of 15.7 percentage points, Zhong An Online said.

In particular, the expense ratio during the January-June period was down by 25.4 percentage points.

Meanwhile, benefiting from the outstanding performance of the A-share market, the carrier’s total investment yield (non-annualized) was around 4 percent, with an investment income of 757.9 million yuan.

The company provided services to around 348 million customers in the reporting period, among which approximately 58 percent were under the age of 35, with insurance policies per capita of 9.6 and premiums contribution per capita of around 16.9 yuan.

With respect to technology export, Zhong An said it has continued to focus on the insurance technology segment, and revenue from that business came to 104.6 million yuan, with over 170 contracted customers.

The strategy to commercialize its insuretech strengths in overseas markets has started to show positive results, the firm said. It has entered into cooperation agreements with local leading insurance companies and O2O platforms in Japan as well as Southeast Asian countries.

For example, Zhong An has exported technology strengths to SOMPO, one of the top three property and casualty insurance companies in Japan, and NTUC Income, the largest comprehensive insurer in Singapore, to help them realize digital transformation.

It is also collaborating with Grab, a leading O2O platform in Southeast Asia, to establish a digital insurance distribution platform to explore the online insurance distribution business in the region.