Great Eastern

[winston]

Great Eastern joint venture making great strides in China
By LEE U-WEN
IN CHONGQING, CHINA


AFTER stamping its mark on western China over the last four years, Singapore's leading life insurance group Great Eastern Life now wants a greater footprint in the country by expanding across the central and eastern regions.

It opened a new branch in Sichuan province eight months ago. Another is on track to begin operations in Shaanxi province by December.

Along with its headquarters in Chongqing, the three cities collectively would give GE Life a potential market of up to 150 million people.

The plan going forward is to open up to six more provincial branches in the next three years, said Ong Lean Wan, director and chief executive of Great Eastern Life Assurance (China), a 50-50 joint venture between GE Life and Chongqing Land Properties Group.

The Chinese shareholder is the Chongqing municipal government's largest state-owned enterprise.

With a total paid-up capital of one billion yuan (S$198 million), GE Life is currently the largest Singapore investor in the south- western city of Chongqing.

'The last couple of years have seen us growing quite rapidly. We have already secured new premiums of 350 million yuan as of this August, and we hope to secure 500 million yuan for all of 2010. This has exceeded the 210 million yuan we achieved last year,' Mr Ong told BT in an interview yesterday on the sidelines of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's visit to GEL China's office at the World Trade Center in central Chongqing.

Mr Ong, who moved to Chongqing last year, said the company has penetrated the insurance market in western China in a big way, with much potential left to grow even further.

'For Chongqing, we find that the knowledge of the importance of insurance is still quite low among the people, unlike many other developed coastal cities,' he said.

In his short presentation to the prime minister earlier in the day, Mr Ong said Chongqing was 'an obvious choice' for GE Life to run its headquarters from because of the way in which insurance growth in the western region had been outstripping the overall national rates.

In 2008 and 2009, the joint venture was the fastest growing among all other such insurance companies across China.

In the first half of 2010 alone, GEL China was first in Chongqing among all foreign joint-venture insurers, said Mr Ong.

'We have had good support from our shareholders and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. We are here for the long term and we aim to be the leading joint-venture insurer in all of China,' he added.

[winston]

Not vested

Great Eastern's Q3 net profit jumps
By ANGELA TAN

Great Eastern Holdings Limited (GEH) reported on Wednesday that its net profit for the third quarter ended September 30 rose to S$168.6 million from S$33.6 million a year ago.

For the nine month period, net profit was S$422.1 million, an increase of 15 per cent from $368.3 million generated a year ago.

The improved performance was driven by strong underwriting profit from the group's strategy to focus on regular premium and protection products in response to the needs of the market, GEH said.

Gross premiums for the quarter slipped 7 per cent to S$1.66 billion from S$1.79 billion a year ago.

For the nine month period, gross premiums increased 4 per cent from a year ago to S$4.37 billion.

For the third quarter, profit from GEH's insurance operations registered S$159.2 million compared to S $211.5 million a year ago.

Underwriting profit continued to grow at a healthy pace as a result of sales of protection products, better claims experience and lower management expenses.

Investment returns in the third quarter were the strongest in 2010 and more than compensated for the dip in financial markets during the second quarter 2010.

On the other hand, returns in the third quarter of 2009 were much higher in comparison as the performance was skewed positively by strong recovery of credit markets after the financial turmoil in 2008.

In Singapore, sales of regular premium products were 30 per cent higher with both the agency and bancassurance channels performing strongly.

In Malaysia, ongoing promotions of investment-linked products helped boost sales of regular premium products, which grew by 55 per cent in the third quarter.

Indonesia registered a six-fold growth from initiatives to increase the number and the productivity of agents.

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/lat ... 93,00.html?

[winston]

Not vested

GEH to redistribute 77 cts/shr via capital reduction, Q4 net profit falls 43%
By ANGELA TAN

Great Eastern Holdings Limited (GEH) said on Tuesday that its directors have proposed for shareholders' approval at the upcoming extraordinary general meeting, a capital reduction that will result in a cash distribution amounting to 77 cents per share to all shareholders.

The proposal was made after the company reported full-year 2010 net profit to shareholders of S$507.2 million, 2 per cent lower than the 2009 profits of S$516.7 million.

Net profit for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2010 fell 43 per cent to S$85.1 million.

The insurance group said despite challenging investment conditions in 2010 caused by volatile interest rates, the results were underpinned by a strong growth in underwriting profits, healthy growth in new business sales from the group's regional businesses and higher long term profitability of the group's businesses as measured by new business embedded value.

Year-on-year, total weighted new sales for the group rose 20 per cent to S$723.8 million, driven by the strong growth of 34 per cent in regular premium products. In Q4-10, total weighted new sales for the group rose 26 per cent to S$237.9 million from S$188.9 million. This is a record in terms of sales in a single quarter.

In Singapore, sales of regular premium products were 43 per cent higher with strong growth in the bancassurance channel.

The Malaysian business achieved 20 per cent growth in sales in Q4-10 over Q4-09 with more than half the sales in Q4-10 comprising regular premium investment linked products.

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/lat ... 77,00.html?

[winston]

Not vested

GREAT EASTERN HOLDINGS - Singapore insurer Great Eastern Holdings said on Wednesday its first quarter net profit fell 11 percent year-on-year, hurt by smaller investment income and higher expenses.


Source: Reuters

[winston]

Not vested

Singapore insurer Great Eastern Holdings plans to expand its general insurance business and does not rule out doing so through acquisitions, recently appointed CEO Christopher Wei said on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters

[winston]

Not vested

Singapore insurer Great Eastern Q2 net profit jumps 58 pct

SINGAPORE, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Singapore insurance firm Great Eastern Holdings posted on Wednesday a 58 percent rise in second quarter net profit due to improvements in its underwriting and investment performance.

Great Eastern, which is about 87 percent held by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp , earned S$117.7 million ($97.7 million) in the quarter ended June, up from S$74.4 million a year ago.

The insurance company said long-term profitability of new sales, as measured by new business embedded value, grew 23 percent year-on-year in the second quarter.

Insurance accounted for 19 percent of OCBC's profit before tax in the first three months of 2011.


Source: Reuters

[winston]

Great Eastern posts 58% rise in Q2 net profit By Linette Lim

SINGAPORE : Great Eastern Holdings has reported a net profit of S$117.7 million for the second quarter ended 30 June, an increase of 58 per cent from S$74.4 million a year ago. This was attributed to its underwriting performance.

Still, the insurer said credit concerns over sovereign debt in the eurozone have been a drag on its performance.

Insurance companies primarily make money through premiums charged on their products.

They then invest this money in income-generating assets such as bonds, equities and real estate.

But, with equities broadly lower across the world this year, real estate hit by rising interest rates, and bonds unsettled by sovereign risk, investment returns have been negative.

Chris Wei, group CEO of Great Eastern Holdings, said: "With the US debt crisis, with the eurozone volatility, it is a challenging market. And the Singapore dollar is strong...we just have to be very careful and prudent in terms of how we make investment decisions."

Great Eastern, a unit of Singapore lender OCBC, said its exposure to US treasuries and European bonds is "very small".

Second-quarter revenue was up 16 per cent to S$189 million.

Mr Wei said: "We have actually had a fantastic quarter and half year this year. Particularly in bancassurance, and we enjoy a very collaborative relationship with our parent bank which is OCBC Bank. In addition to continued penetration into the mass banking segment, what we also did was, we did a lot of work with our premier banking colleagues."

Great Eastern said it will focus on growing its premium banking customer segment and its takaful business in Malaysia.

Source: CNA/ms

[winston]

Madoff trustee sues S'pore Lion Global, 6 others for $174 mln

Aug 19 (Reuters) - The court-appointed trustee trying to recover money for investors defrauded by convicted swindler Bernard Madoff has sued seven companies for more than $174 million.

The trustee, Irving Picard, sued Singapore's Lion Global Investors Ltd for $50.6 million and British Virgin Islands-based Quilvest Finance Ltd for $37.8 million.

Picard accused all seven companies of collaborating in the imprisoned swindler's massive Ponzi scheme.

The case is Picard v. Lion et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-02540.

Source: Reuters

[iam802]

this Lion Global Investors Ltd subsidiary of OCBC, right?

[winston]

About Lion Global Investors Limited

70% owned by Great Eastern Holdings Limited (Great Eastern) and 30% owned by Orient Holdings Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC Bank), Lion Global Investors is one of the largest asset management companies in Southeast Asia.

We have over 50 investment professionals including portfolio managers, analysts and traders managing assets of S$28.7 billion as of 30 June 2011.

Offering a comprehensive suite of investment products covering all asset classes, our clients include government and government-linked corporations, public and private companies, charitable organisations and individual investors.

http://www.lionglobalinvestors.com/Comp ... ation.aspx