Inroads into Chinese Life Insurance Market
Hanwha Life Insurance announced on January 19 that it has kicked off its business in earnest by holding an opening ceremony of its Jiangsu Province headquarters at Jinling Hotel Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, China.
This is the result achieved in four years after the company pushed into the Chinese market by establishing China-Korea Life Insurance Co. Ltd. with the paid-in capital of 500 million yuan (US$73.1 million or 86.12 billion won) in partnership with Zhejiang International Trade Group in December 2012.
As of the end of 2016, Hanwha Life has grown into a company with the total asset of $1.24 billion yuan (US$181.29 million or 213.57 billion won) and premium income of 870 million yuan (US$127.2 million or 149.84 billion won). China-Korea Life Insurance has pursued the multi-channel and thorough localization strategies based on market analysis.
China-Korea Life Insurance targeted personal insurance agents, bancassurance and multi channels at the same time. It sold endowment insurance and pension insurance products, which are preferred by customers, through bancassurance with the partnership with China’s large banks – the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China. It also focused on localization by hiring 300 local people as managers, except for president and two staff members.
With strategic choices, China-Korea Life Insurance ranked first in terms of size and second in terms of new contract premiums among 15 foreign insurance companies in Zhejiang Province in 2016, four years after its founding.