Business

Minors beat giants in insurance competition

That professional insurers have increasingly lost market share to newcomers in terms of non-life insurance is an undeniable fact in the recent past.

That professional insurers haveincreasingly lost market share to newcomers in terms of non-lifeinsurance is an undeniable fact in the recent past.

2009 is an unforgettably sad year for the Bao Minh Insurance Company(BMI), which lost the aviation and coal and mineral markets to theVietnam Non-life Insurance Aviation Company (VNI) and the SHB-Vinacominnon-life Insurance Company (SVIC).

VNI has just been established by the Vietnam Airlines and four othershare holders while SVIC was founded by the Saigon-Hanoi Bank and theVietnam Coal and Mineral Group.

The Military Non-Life Insurance Company (MIC) run by the Military Bankand several other military enterprises have sold non-life insurance tomajor projects worth thousands of billions of VND each such as theEastern Truong Son Highway, border patrol roads, hydro-power plants andtraffic projects. The MIC has also won contracts to provide accidentinsurance for servicemen.

These fledgling insurers have managed to cash in on their industrial strengths, putting pressure on the giants.

The PetroVietnam Insurance Company (PVI), for example, has recorded aleading growth rate of 35 percent in premium revenues in the first halfof 2009 among the top five non-life insurers. It has now overtaken BaoMinh’s to become second-largest in the non-life insurance market andconsiderably narrowed its gap with national leader, the Bao VietInsurance Company.

Statistics released by the Vietnam Insurance Association showed thatthe PVI has increased its market share to 23.6 percent in the firsthalf of this year while Bao Viet’s market share decreased by 4.5percent to 26 percent and that of Bao Minh dropped to 14.1 percent from17.3 percent in 2008.

Newcomers SVIC and VNI have managed to garner 1.0 percent and 1.99percent of the market, an achievement that would take many otherinsurers a number of years.

The non-life insurance market in Vietnam is operated by 27 enterpriseswhich sell over 100 products, promising unprecedented growth in theyears to come.

Liberty Insurance Company CEO Carlos Vanegas predicted an annual growthrate of 25 percent for the Vietnam non-life insurance market in the2009-13 period. He added that automobile, heath and property insurancewill take the lead in this period.

The Vietnam Insurance Association said non-life insurance premiumrevenues surged by 15 percent in the first ten months of the yeardespite the economic downturn./.

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