Kurnia Group
Kurnia Asia Back On The Right Track With Improvement In Underwriting Performance
November 27th, 2008
Petaling Jaya, 27 November 2008 – Kurnia Asia Berhad (KAB) released
its unaudited financial results for the first quarter (Q1) of the financial
year ending 30 June 2009 (FY2008/09) at its corporate head office in Menara
Kurnia.
KAB achieved a turnaround in underwriting performance, with a surplus of RM
2.67 million for Q1 FY2008/09, after four immediate preceding quarters of consolidated
underwriting deficit.
KAB executive chairman, Tan Sri Dato’ Kua Sian Kooi, commented: “We
have successfully turned around our underwriting performance for the first
quarter of our new financial year. It’s a good start to our new financial
year and we are back on the right track as a result of strategic business and
operational measures put in place. We also thank our customers and agents for
their strong support and confidence in us. They have certainly contributed
to our improved performance for the quarter under review.
“Our internal transformation and revitalization program (Transformation
of Operations and Performance – TOP), aimed at enhancing productivity
and profitability, has been running for close to two years now. This exercise
has reaped remarkable results in our operations, particularly within the five
critical pillars of transformation: organizational leadership, distribution,
underwriting, claims and growth in non-motor sector.”
Tan Sri further commented: “In line with our longer term commitment
to our business in Malaysia, we have also strengthened and expanded our senior
management team with highly experienced and competent talents from strategically
relevant areas within the insurance sector. This too, has led to the greatly
improved performance in underwriting.”
“Unfortunately, due to the current financial crisis around the world,
our investment performance was impacted, causing our overall profitability
for the quarter to be lower. However, we are confident that if we keep up with
our performance in underwriting, we should be able to have a healthier financial
year end this time around.”
“While our presence in the motor sector will continue to be an important
business segment for Kurnia Insurans (Malaysia) Berhad (KIMB), we are also
strategically refocusing our priorities on the non-motor sector to achieve
a 15% non-motor portfolio mix, up from 12% last year,” Tan Sri concluded.
The group attributed the turnaround in underwriting performance to a more pro-active
risk selection strategy as well as to strengthened claims management practices
implemented through TOP. For the current quarter under review, the group’s
claims expenses reduced by 10.0% to RM 172.87 million compared with RM 192.18
million in Q1 of the previous financial year. As such, the group’s
claims ratio has improved to 68.0% (Q1 FY2007/08: 75.4%), resulting in the
said underwriting performance.
The group also registered an improvement in its top-line, whereby gross premium
income improved by 5.2% to RM 282.55 million for Q1 FY 2008/09, up from RM
268.52 million in the same quarter of the preceding year.
However, the group’s improved top-line and underwriting performance
were weighed down by our investment results. Though a net loss of RM12.11 million
was incurred mainly due to the unfavourable stock market condition, we have
taken steps to review our asset allocation in our investment portfolio and
have adopted a defensive stance in view of the uncertain economic outlook.
As part of our continuous effort to better serve our policyholders, KIMB recently
re-launched its enhanced Kurnia Express (KE) service at its head office on
21 November 2008. This claims service enables comprehensive motor policyholders
to immediately settle their own damage claims of up to RM3,000. The same service
has been extended to include windscreen claims of up to RM5,000 for policyholders
who have windscreen insurance coverage.
In addition, the Kurnia Auto Assist (KAA) service, which can be contacted
at 1-800-88-3833, has been improved with the deployment of ‘KAA Riders’ on
motorcycles arriving at breakdown scenes within 30 minutes in the Klang Valley
to render repair service if possible.
Furthermore, as part of our value-added service initiatives, the latest addition
is the free SMS alerts to our policyholders on their claims status as well
as reminders to renew their motor insurance. The service also enables customers
to rate our service quality, send feedback through SMS and make NCD enquiries.
As a market leader, we continue to be innovative in our products and services,
which will certainly delight our valued customers, agents and business partners.