Berkley Phils sees 30% revenue growth next year

Banking on its aggressive expansion and marketing strategy, Berkley Philippines Inc. is projecting a 30-percent growth in revenues next year.

Fernando Correa Urquiza, president of Berkley International LLC, said "this ambitious target may be easier or difficult to achieve" depending on several factors like the growth of the economy and the industry.

The pre-need industry has faced difficult challenges in meeting investment objectives based on the assumptions of expected returns under more favorable economic and market conditions.

Some pre-need companies had been affected by the continued slowdown in the property sector and the decline of the stock market. With few investment alternatives, the pre-need investment portfolio has been invested mainly in real estate, listed stocks, Treasury bills and government bonds, and bank deposits.

Luie Dy Buncio, newly-appointed president of Berkley Philippines and Family First, said the growth will come from new business and succeeding payment collections and sales of educational plans. "Growth of locations will drive that growth. The idea is to open more branches for more people to see us," he added.

Family First is the distributing arm of Berkley Philippines. Unlike other financial services companies, it directly markets pre-need education plans, pension plans, family security plans and group life plans.

Dy Buncio said the company will beef up its presence in commercial centers in and out of Metro Manila to attract more prospective clients. Three new sales offices are expected to be put up next year.

At present, the company has five branches located in SM Megamall, Enterprise Center in Makati, Festival Supermall in Alabang, SM Southmall in Las Piñas City, and SM North Edsa.

Plans are underway to open one in Cebu next year plus two more before 2003 is over.

Urquiza said Berkley Philippines’ return on investments has exceeded by 20 percent for its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2002.

As part of efforts to provide better service to its customers, Berkley has established an action center hotline - telephone no. 7551591, which all plan holders, prospects, and customers can have their concerns, questions or even complaints addressed at the soonest possible time.

Berkley Philippines has recently been given (for the second year in a row) a credi rating of PRS A plus by Standard and Poor’s local affiliate, the Philippine Rating Services Corp. The rating means that the company has an above average capacity to meet its financial commitments as against other corporations.

As of end-September this year, the pre-need firm had trust fund of P906 million.