Allianz Lanka maintains positive growth

Allianz Insurance Lanka, the fully owned subsidiary of German Insurance conglomerate Allianz SE, announced an Interim profit before tax of Rs. 28 million for the six months ending 30 June 2008; an increase of 62% over last year’s figures of the same period.

Underwriting profit for the period recorded 36% improvement over last year’s Rs. 9 million to Rs. 12 million in the second quarter of 2008. Gross Written Premium (GWP) also grew correspondingly by 36%, from Rs. 246 million last year to Rs. 336 million in the six months under review in 2008.

“The Company, this year, set up specialised units to handle D&O (Directors’ & Officers’ Liability) insurance and Title insurance. The Company will also be fully IT enabled shortly, with the setting up of a fully integrated state-of-the-art IT system at all customer service points on par with the Allianz Global IT system.

Allianz is confident that this system will give the Company the competitive edge in Sri Lanka, in terms of speed of response, efficiency, quality and personalised service,” Alllianz Lanka CEO Surekha Alles said.

Allianz Lanka was also successful in obtaining the license to transact Life assurance business in Sri Lanka from July 1, from the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka (IBSL). Life operations will commence in October this year.

“We have done market research, analysed competitor product offerings and identified some important Life assurance solutions that we will offer at the start.

“We will then further develop other non-conventional insurance products with the necessary approvals from the Insurance Board,” Alles said.