Manulife expects 40% rise in premium income

Manulife expects 40% rise in premium income

JAKARTA (JP): Life insurance company PT Dharmala Manulife said
here on Friday it expected this year to boost its premium income
by 40 percent from Rp 328 billion in 1998.

Dharmala Manulife vice president Adi Purnomo said on Friday
the rise would in part result from last May's launching of a new
product, called the Pro-invest scheme, which drew 4000 new policy
holders since June.

The company's premium income from the Pro-invest program
reached Rp 10 billion, he said.

Dharmala's premium income grew by 40 percent last year to Rp
328 billion, Adi said.

Its assets reached Rp 1.03 trillion, of which Rp 949 billion
were invested by the company, and Rp 872 billion was kept as
reserves, he said.

Adi said 75 percent of the Rp 949 billion was invested in time
deposits, 5 percent in mutual funds, 2 percent on obligations, 2
percent on share placement, and 8 percent on policy borrowing
last year.

The company paid Rp 495 billion in claims last year, Rp 265 of
which were maturity and surrender payments and Rp 30 billion were
payments for deaths and accidents.

Dharmala Manulife is owned 51 percent by Canada-based Manulife
Financial, 40 percent by the Dharmala Group and the remaining 9
percent belongs to the International Financial Corporation.

At Friday's press briefing the company announced that its
parent company, Manulife, had signed an agreement to establish a
joint-venture with Japan's Daihyaku Mutual Life Insurance
Company.

Manulife Financial's senior vice president for Asian
Operations, David Horman, said his company and Daihyaku will each
initially invest 40 billion yen (US$350 million) as paid-up
capital.

Manulife will own a 75 percent controlling share in the joint-
venture, which will start operations on April 1, and Daihyaku
will own the remaining 25 percent, he said.

Daihyaku is the fifteenth largest insurance firm in Japan,
with 1.4 million policy holders. (das)