Life insurers post 18pc rise in H1 profit

Seven leading Japanese life insurance groups posted an 18 percent year-on-year increase in profit from core operations for the April-September half even as their key measure of revenue, mostly derived from premiums, declined by four percent.

Their aggregate basic profit came to JPY1.23 trillion (USD11 billion), while premium income reduced to JPY8.99 trillion. The yen’s depreciation and higher stock prices helped lift the insurers’ income from interest and dividends, leading to wider spreads between returns promised to policyholders and actual investment returns.

Nippon Life Insurance saw its basic profit previously projected to drop, rise by 0.7 percent on the year to JPY344.9 billion. Dai-ichi Life Holdings’ basic profit soared 43 percent to JPY303.2 billion, aided by brisk earnings at a subsidiary.

Profits also rose at the other five: Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance, Sumitomo Life Insurance, T&D Holdings, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance and Asahi Mutual Life Insurance. Meiji Yasuda’s profit was buoyed by US subsidiary StanCorp Financial Group, which was acquired last year.

Premium income fell at all but Nippon Life and Meiji Yasuda due largely to discontinued sales of savings-type products amid low interest rates. Sumitomo Life’s figure plunged by 22 percent to JPY1.35 trillion.