PETALING JAYA: Tune Protect Group Bhd continued its turnaround with impressive financial results for the third quarter of the financial year 2023 (Q3’23) with a double-digit growth of 22% year-on-year (y-o-y) in net written premiums (NWP) and a profitable bottom line driven by improvements in underwriting performance and investments.
The group said its profit after tax increased by more than 100% in Q3’23 to RM4.8 million and to RM19.1 million for nine months 2023 (9M23).
While the travel, motor and health segments led topline growth, the overall retention ratio in Q3’23 and 9M23 exceeded the group’s target of 70% by 4% and 6% respectively.
CEO Rohit Nambiar said, “The group’s NWP across all the main pillars increased 22% y-o-y in Q3’23 and this growth has more than compensated for the absence of the Perlindungan Tenang (Tenang) scheme which was discontinued in FY23. Growth in the health pillar was led by the foreign worker segment, while growth in the lifestyle pillar was led by the motor segment (up 41.1% y-o-y) and travel segment (up 25.5% y-o-y). However, the SME segment fell marginally by 7.6% due to lower growth in the engineering segment, which was offset by growth in the SME Fire segment (up more than 100% y-o-y).”
The group’s digital partnerships and e-commerce registered commendable third-quarter NWP growth of 7.5% y-o-y. Though 9M23 NWP recorded a decline by 17.6% if Tenang was included, the NWP growth excluding Tenang was encouraging with a healthy 38.8% growth, signalling the trailing off of the dependency on Tenang. The number of digital partners increased from 65 in Q3’22 to 79 in Q3’23.
Rohit explained that despite a 15.3% drop in insurance revenue y-o-y to RM106.9 million in Q3’23, the group’s quarterly profitability was underpinned by growth of the insurance service result, coupled with improved investment performance.
“Insurance service result grew more than 100% y-o-y to RM6.7 million in Q3’23. Furthermore, lower allocation of reinsurance premium turned insurance service result from negative to positive translating to a lower combined ratio of 95.2% during the period. In Q3’23 and the first nine months of 2023 combined ratio was lower than 100%. These healthy indicators, coupled with rising investment performance with total investment income of RM6.8 million have led to the group’s profitability in the quarter,” Rohit said.
The group has affirmed its investment strategy for its portfolio totalling RM714.5 million as at Sept 30.
Rohit is confident that the group will deliver favourable investment returns.
“Close to 80% of our portfolio is invested in money market funds and term deposits. Bank Negara Malaysia has again maintained the current overnight policy rate at 3% for the third successive meeting, reiterating its stance that the monetary policy remains supportive of the economy and is consistent with the current assessment of inflation and growth prospects. Our conservative asset allocation continues to shield us from recent market volatility. We will remain vigilant on developments in both global and local capital markets,” he said.
