GT Capital’s Charter Ping An boosts earnings

MANILA, Philippines - Charter Ping An Insurance Corp. has reported a 20-percent increase in net income in the first nine months of 2013 to P177.8 million.

Charter Ping An is a member of the GT Capital Holdings Inc., the investment firm of the Ty family.

Other units of the conglomerate are Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), AXA Life Insurance, Federal land Inc., Toyota Motor Philippines Corp., and Global Business Power Corp.

Charter Ping An’s net premiums written (NPW), the measure of real business for non-life insurance companies, rose 15 percent to P1.32 billion in the first nine months of 2013 from the P1.15 billion in the same period last year.

Gross premiums written (GPW) expanded to P2.63 billion in end-September, or 25 percent more than the P2.6 billion recorded last year.

Net investment income ballooned 48 percent to P88.3 million in the first three quarters of 2013, from the P59.5 million in the same period last year.

However, Charter Ping An president Melecio C. Mallillin said that the remaining three months of the year would weigh heavily on the full year results.

Over the last three months, the worst typhoon (Super Typhoon Yolanda), the Zamboanga siege and the Bohol earthquake is expected to make the largest impact on the non-life insurer.

Data of the amount of damage and claims are still incomplete but already insurers are raising warnings.

Initially, Mallillin said that it could reduce its targeted full year 2013 performance by 30-percent, as the worse case scenario.

This may likewise be true for the rest of the industry as the top 10 non-life insurers account for roughly 70-percent of total premiums written.

Charter Ping An insures the Metrobank branches in the affected areas.

The GT Capital subsidiary is one of the leaders in the fire, property and motor insurance business. A little over 40 percent of its business comes from Metrobank assets.

Charter Ping An ranked fourth overall among the country’s non-life insurers last year.