Philippine Prudential Life premiums up 26% to P234 M in 1st quarter

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Prudential Life Insurance Inc. (PPLI) said its total premiums reached P234.4 million at the end of March, or an increase of 26 percent from P186.3 million in the same period last year.

“This is very important as it is a strong growth rate for a period of the year that is traditionally weak, including the month of April,” Gregorio D. Mercado, PPLI president and chief executive officer, said.

Likewise, the industry reportedly grew over 40 percent in the same period, driven mainly by the strong production performance of the bancassurance channel.

Mercado said that the 2011 target in terms of total premium income was P1.1 billion. “But I am confident that hitting the one-billion mark is readily achievable,” he said, adding that the 25-percent performance in the first quarter of 2011 only re-enforced their bullish outlook.

All the product lines and distribution channels performed well. That includes the health-related life insurance product and the 40-seat telemarketing arm.

However, Mercado said the country’s insurance industry may have grown faster, buoyed by the bancassurance channel. Bancassurance means the sale of life insurance products within a bank partner’s branch network.

Major players with established bancassurance networks have reported high double-digit growth in that segment, with one claiming to have grown in over a hundred times.

At the end of 2010, PPLI’s total premium income amounted P890 million or a 31-percent growth over the previous year.

Total policyholders reached over 1.5 million, while its business-in-force grew to over P57 billion.

Total assets reached over P681 million, representing a 16.2 percent growth over the previous year or a tremendous 272 percent over a span of five years.

Net income was recorded at P23.86 million, or a 496 percent growth over five years.

Total equity was at over P228.9 million, from merely P139 million in 2005, or a five-year growth of 63.6 percent, while the legal policy reserves, the funds invested to be used for future claims, was recorded at over P351 million, or an increase of over P69 million from the previous year. 

As of Dec. 31, 2010, total investments were at over P351.47 million.