Amid the business disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Allianz Asia-Pacific has recorded a 15.4% increase in operating profit, bringing in €551 million (SG$885.8 million) for calendar year 2020.
In its annual results, Allianz APAC reported that total revenue for Asia grew by 9% to €7.4 billion (SG$11.9 billion). Both life & health and property & casualty segments registered profitable years, with operating profits up 11.4% and 12.5%, respectively.
These are in contrast to Allianz’s global figures, which showed dips in both revenue and profit.
“2020 will forever be remembered as one dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Solmaz Altin (pictured), regional CEO, Allianz Asia-Pacific. “Our priority throughout remained ensuring the health of our employees, while continuing to serve our customers and grow our business in the region. I’m proud to report we did both successfully. Specifically, our entities in Asia were able to support an increase in total overall revenues for the region, alongside other positive financials across our life & health and property & casualty divisions – a great result.
“We expect the first half of this year to remain challenging, but I am confident our Allianz Asia franchise is resilient and well-placed to build on last year’s success and press on.”
According to regional CFO Aaron Fryer, Allianz’s life & health profit growth was driven by strong performance in Malaysia and Indonesia. Meanwhile, the new business value growth of 2.5% was due to higher volumes from Indonesia and the Philippines, with the agency channel responsible for the bulk of new sales.
As for the P&C business, profit growth was credited to almost all markets in the region, but especially to Malaysia and China, Fryer said. The insurer’s combined ratio improved by 3.1 percentage points to 97.2% versus the previous year, driven by improvements in admin expense and loss ratio.
“The best barometer for success is always feedback from our customers, particularly if they would consider referring us to family and friends,” added Altin. “We are pleased that in 2020 the share of Allianz businesses whose Net Promoter Score outperformed their respective markets reached 73% – including six of our operating entities attaining Loyalty Leadership, an increase on the previous year.”
