Philamlife profit surges 44% to P3.76B

The Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philamlife) reported a net income of P3.76 billion in 2005, up by 44 percent from P2.6 billion in 2004," its president and chief executive officer Jose L. Cuisia said the other day.

Gross premiums stood at P13.8 billion last year, up by nearly two percent from the P13.5 billion in 2004. Total revenues grew by 5.2 percent from P28 billion to P29.5 billion last year while assets stood at P132.5 billion, up from the P109.7 billion the year before.

Philamlife is among the country’s leading life insurance companies with the largest sales force of 9,000 agents. It controls more than 25 percent of the entire life insurance market.

Part of its premium growth comes from its bancassurance operations bannered by the Philam Equitable Life Assurance Co. Inc. (Pelac). Majority of policies sold by Pelac is re-insured with Philamlife with a small number of policies retained by the joint venture between Philamlife and Equitable PCI Bank.

Cuisia said 2006 will continue to be a profitable year for the insurer although he stressed that streamlining and cost-efficiency measures will still be aggressively implemented.

He admitted that 2005 was one of the most challenging years for the insurance industry, burdened by the negative impact of the troubled pre-need industry, low interest rates, a high tax environment, and growing competition for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) from an unlikely sector, the real estate sector.

"The property or real estate sector has been aggressive in selling to the OFW market," Cuisia said. "And the Filipino migrant worker has always preferred a house or a lot, or both, over insurance."

Philamlife has reserves of P62 billion and investments of P102.4 billion, mainly in government securities, corporate bonds, US treasury and US corporate bonds. To continue to look long-term in servicing its policyholders, it is considering re-pricing schemes as well as introducing new products to keep its reserves healthy.