Allianz delivers strong full-year performance in the region in 2020

Global insurer Allianz yesterday announced its consolidated results for the Asia Pacific region for the year ended 31 December 2020, showing that total operating profit for Asia increased by 15.4% (19.0% w/o F/X impact) to EUR551m ($666.4m) compared to 2019.

Total revenues for Asia rose by 9.0% (10.3% w/o F/X impact) to EUR7.4bn.

Life & Health operating profit jumped by 11.4% to EUR431m, with new business value up 2.5% to EUR342m while Property & Casualty revenues increased by 12.5% (15.4% w/o F/X impact) to EUR1.3bn, with operating profit soaring by 32.6% to EUR120m. (The operating profit figures include India and holding costs; results exclude global lines.)

Mr Solmaz Altin, regional CEO of Allianz Asia Pacific, said, “2020 will forever be remembered as one dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our priority throughout remained ensuring the health of our employees, while continuing to serve our customers and grow our business in the region.”

Stating that these were achieved successfully, he added, “Specifically, our entities in Asia were able to support an increase in total overall revenues for the region, alongside other positive financials across our life & health and property & casualty divisions – a great result.” He expects the first half of this year to remain challenging.

Mr Aaron Fryer, regional CFO of Allianz Asia Pacific, giving further details on the business’s financial performance, said that the performance of the Life & Health (L/H) business was driven mostly by strong performance in Malaysia and Indonesia. New business margin remained at a strong 5.7% and new business value (NBV) increased by 2.5%, mainly driven by higher volumes from Indonesia and the Philippines, with the agency channel the largest contributor to NBV in the region.

As for P&C business, nearly all markets contributed positively in the region, with particularly strong growth in China and Malaysia, says Mr Fryer. P&C operating profit in the region increased by a third to EUR120m, driven by good performance in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand, and notwithstanding our investment in a new Singapore entity. He added, “Combined ratio improved 3.1 ppts to 97.2% versus the previous year, driven by improvements in admin expense and loss ratio.”

Developments

Mr Solmaz, outlining developments in Asia for Allianz in 2020. said, “We launched the Allianz (China) Insurance Holding Company one year ago and have now received approval under the holding entity for the preparatory establishment of Allianz Insurance Asset Management Company. In addition, we’ve recently agreed for Allianz to acquire the 49% outstanding Allianz China Life shares from CITIC Trust, allowing our life business in China to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Allianz holding company, pending regulatory approval.

“With China on track to become the largest insurance market globally, both strategic announcements have strengthened Allianz’s local proposition, positioned us to maximise new business opportunities and will allow Allianz to better serve our customers’ financial service needs.

“Back in March, we entered into a life insurance joint venture with AEON Financial Service to develop and market life insurance solutions to local customers in Japan. This joint venture allows Allianz to leverage our partner’s capabilities to ensure long-term sustainable growth in the world’s third-largest economy.

“Our new entity Allianz Insurance Singapore became fully operational in the second half of the year, helping us better serve the local retail and SME market in the city state. To date, we’ve delivered a range of general insurance products to the market via our business partner, agents, financial advisers, brokers and partnerships.”

Allianz is active in 14 markets in the Asia Pacific, offering its core businesses of property and casualty insurance, life, protection and health solutions, as well as asset management. With its more than 32,000 staff, Allianz serves the needs of over 18m customers in the region across multiple distribution channels and digital platforms.

Source: Asia Insurance Review