Jasindo aims to boost retail market revenue
Jasindo aims to boost retail market revenue
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned general insurance firm PT Asuransi
Jasa Indonesia (Jasindo) said on Wednesday that it would raise
its retail-driven revenue to 20 percent from last year's 8
percent.
Jasindo spokesman Reni Rizal said the target was part of the
company's strategy to focus more on its retail market.
"We began to realize the huge potentials of the retail
market," Reni said at a press meeting.
She said Jasindo currently owned four retail insurance
products, comprising travel, accidents, car and home insurances.
At present, the company is better known in a corporate
insurance market, with a strong clientele base of state-owned
companies.
She said 92 percent of the company's 1999 revenue of Rp 212
billion (US$24 million at the current rate), derived from its
corporate insurance market.
"For this year, the composition will be 80 percent corporate
and 20 percent retail," she said.
Jasindo, in an article from the company's bulletin, expected
this year to earn Rp 102 billion from its retail market and Rp
508 billion from its corporate market.
Reni said Jasindo was actually among the first companies to
introduce retail insurance, when it launched its car insurance
product during the 1980s.
"However, back then we found the corporate market to be more
profitable," she explained.
Last year, she said, the company began to sell travel-
insurance coupons at airports covering domestic routes. "Despite
the smaller premium, we expect a significant revenue from these
insurance coupons."
Reni said that the company was also preparing its human
resources to expand the retail market through direct selling and
promotion activities.
She expressed confidence that Jasindo would gain a sizable
share of the retail market segment, saying that premium payments
were relatively cheaper compared to its competition.
Jasindo's director of corporate operation, Mustafa Ashari, in
an interview with the company's bulletin in March, said that the
1997 economic crisis had prompted Jasindo to strengthen its
retail market.
Mustafa said that by expanding its retail market, Jasindo
would become less vulnerable to slumps in the corporate market,
as happened during the economic crisis.
"This is why we need to balance our portfolio with smaller
revenue bases, by changing the composition of the policy
holders," he was quoted as saying.
He said the shift in Jasindo's insurance portfolio would
follow a restructuring of its organization.
"We'll look for people that fit with the retail sector, as
both the service and the marketing are different from the
corporate sector," the bulletin quoted him saying.
However, he added, Jasindo's core business remained in the
corporate insurance market.
Jasindo said it has 30 years of corporate insurance experience
with clients, including state-owned telecommunications firm PT
Telkom Indonesia, national airline Garuda Indonesia and steel
company PT Krakatau Steel.
The company reported its net income in 1999 was Rp 57 billion
from Rp 52 billion in 1998.
Its total assets last year stood at Rp 746 billion from Rp 733
billion in 1998, the company said.(bkm)