Industry Updates

General Insurance Market Performance for the first half of 2009

In the first half of 2009, gross and net premiums for general insurance business registered a modest increase of 1.8% to HK$14.508 billion and 2.4% to HK$10.500 billion respectively compared with the corresponding period in 2008. Overall underwriting performance also improved from a profit of $826 million to $1.294 billion.

On direct business, gross and net premiums gained 2.0% to $11.711 billion and 2.9% to $8.781 billion respectively in the first half of 2009, driven again by Accident & Health business whose gross and net premiums were $4.090 billion and $3.551 billion respectively, as well as construction-related Employees' Compensation business whose gross and net premiums were $582 million and $498 million respectively.

The underwriting profit of direct business advanced from HK$306 million to HK$925 million in the first half of 2009 due to favourable claims experience. Specifically, Property Damage business returned a profit of $318 million as compared with $55 million for the same period of 2008 when severe losses were inflicted by tropical storms. Employees' Compensation business also recovered from a loss of $172 million to a profit of $18 million, while Non-Statutory Ships business and Motor Vehicle business managed to trim their respective losses from $98 million to $12 million and from $68 million to $26 million.