The Fuji Fire & Marine Co., Ltd., ("Fuji Fire and Marine" or "the Company": TSE: 8763), one of Japan's oldest and most trusted names in insurance, released its 2007 interim results on Friday, November 16, 2007.
Fuji Fire & Marine, Competitive in Challenging Market Conditions
Affected by the difficult domestic business environment, Fuji Fire & Marine saw Net Premiums Written ("NPW") fall slightly -0.7%, compared to the same period last year. Despite the current adverse business conditions, Fuji Fire and Marine was a top performer in the Japanese industry and continues to drive its strategy based on: anticipating customer needs with high-value services via new sales channels, a culture focused on continuous improvement, and best-in-class risk management and portfolio investment processes.
Chief Executive Officer Bijan Khosrowshahi commented, "Considering the situation of the global financial markets and the overall industry slowdown in Japan, we are relatively pleased with our results. We are taking share in the highly-competitive Auto and Fire markets, while Marine has turned in robust growth of close to 20% compared with last half. We continue to look for new ways to improve our products, marketing, efficiencies, and risk management. Our efforts over the last few years are now yielding sizeable results as we have become a top performer in Japan on an Annualized Premiums basis."
Highlights:
-- Net Premiums Written grew in three of five business lines; overall
results in NPWs were slightly down 0.7% compared to 1H 06, a top
performer in the Japanese insurance industry.
-- Net Investment Income for 1H 07 up JPY 1.5 billion, 25.6% against 1H 06
on increased dividend and interest income of JPY 2.4 billion.
-- Ordinary Income was down 7% (JPY 0.4 billion) on investments in
infrastructure and expenses related to claims payment issues.
-- Net Income was down 34.3% by JPY 1.7 billion on a one-time gain on a
real estate sale in 1H 06 for JPY 1.7 billion.
Net Premiums Written -- Despite growth in three of five business lines, NPWs slightly down 0.7% compared to 1H 06, with Fuji Fire and Marine coming in as a top performer in the Japanese insurance industry
-- Fuji Fire and Marine is Japan's top performer for ordinary accounts
(excluding compulsory auto and earthquake insurance), with a slight
year-on-year decline of -0.3%.
-- For general accounts (which includes both compulsory auto and
earthquake), NPWs were down 0.7%, with earthquake up 1.6% and
compulsory auto down 2.7%.
-- NPW saw robust growth in the small, but rapidly-growing Marine business
with growth of 18.9% compared with the same period last year, Accident
and Health up 3.6%, and Casualty up 1.8%.
-- Auto was down 1.5%, although car registrations were down over 9% during
the same period illustrating how our focus on moving customers up the
value chain with innovative products is yielding gains in market share.
-- Fire remained flat at -0.1% even though new housing starts were down
20% during the same period. Our strategy to advance our marketing
efforts via our robust network of realtor agents is showing dividends.
Net Investment Income for 1H 07 up JPY 1.5 billion, 25.6% against 1H 06 on increased dividend and interest income of JPY 2.4 billion
-- Stringent best-in-class risk management is paying off as Fuji Fire and
Marine has no investments with direct US subprime exposure.
-- Fuji Fire and Marine's diversified portfolio, modeled on global
best-in-class standards, delivered dividend and interest income of
JPY 15.5 billion, canceling the loss on the sale of foreign currency
bonds.
Ordinary Income down 7% or JPY 0.4 billion on investments in infrastructure and expenses related to claims payment issues
-- Main contributor to decline in Ordinary Income was an increase of
General Operating Expenses of 2.3% or JPY 1.2 billion compared with the
same period last year on expenses related to investment in
infrastructure and claims payment issues.
Net Income down 34.3%, or JPY 1.7 billion on a one-time gain on real estate in 1H 06 for JPY 1.7 billion
-- Net Income was JPY 3.2 billion, down JPY 1.7 billion compared to the
same period last year; the amount is equivalent to a one-time gain
recorded in the first half of 2006 on the sale of a real estate asset.
FINANCIAL RESULTS GLOBAL CONFERENCE CALL
Fuji Fire and Marine will hold a global conference call to discuss its results on Monday November 19, 2007. The call will begin at 10:00 PM in Tokyo, 1:00 PM in London, and 8:00 AM in New York. For conference call dial-in information, please call our IR agent Taylor Rafferty in Tokyo at 81-3-3221- 9513 (attn: Ms. Saori Saito), in London at 44-20-7614-2900 (attn: Mr. Faisal Kanth), or in New York at 212-889-4350 (attn: Mr. Allon Bloch). http://invite.taylor-rafferty.com/_fuji_fire_marine/fy2007cc
Founded in 1918, Fuji Fire & Marine is one of Japan's oldest and most trusted names in insurance. Through its 200 offices nationwide, the Company is building on its tradition of excellence with a diverse family of products including the popular and growing "Accident and Health" line of coverage and many other non-life insurance policies such as fire, automobile and marine.
News and other information about The Fuji Fire & Marine Co., Ltd. is available at http://www.fujikasai.co.jp/english/index.shtml .
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