Thursday, March 08, 2012

INDONESIA - TAKAFUL - Indonesian revenue to pick up from 2014, says Takaful Malaysia

www.thesundaily.my - KUALA LUMPUR (March 8, 2012): Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd, which is in the process of restructuring its Indonesian operations, expects revenue contribution from there to pick up steam in 2014 or 2015 from the current 5%, and to make up for half of the group's revenue in five years.
It now derives 95% of its revenue from Malaysia.
"The takaful (Islamic insurance) market in Indonesia is large. It's like a time-bomb about to explode. When it grows, it will grow rapidly. We have seen that happen to Islamic banking," Takaful Malaysia group managing director Datuk Mohamed Hassan Kamil told a news conference here yesterday.  (source)


He expects the takaful market in Indonesia to pick up momentum in the next one to two years, when the country's regulator implements a plan to forbid the use of "Islamic window," or the sale of takaful products by conventional insurers, in order to encourage establishment of pure takaful companies.
"(When that happens,) a lot of these takaful windows will shift to become separate operating companies and since we have been there for 15 years, we believe we are well-positioned to capture this growing market," said Mohamed Hassan. A takaful window is an insurer which offers takaful services, but is not licensed as a takaful operator.
Takaful Malaysia, whose pre-tax profit exceeded the RM100 million mark for the first time in the financial year to Dec 31, 2011 (FY11) to record RM101.4 million, is expecting revenue to grow at least 30% this year. Last year, the group's revenue rose 17% to RM1.4 billion.
"Malaysia's takaful market has been growing by 28-30% per year for the last five years. For us to continue to grow our market share of 25% here, we need to grow faster than the industry's growth rate," said Mohamed Hassan.
Meanwhile, the group plans to do away with its 56%-owned holding company called PT Syarikat Takaful Indonesia (STI) as part of a restructuring of its indonesian entities, leaving only its representation through its two operating companies: PT Asuransi Takaful Keluarga (in which Takaful Malaysia now holds a 42.73% stake) and PT Asuransi Takaful Umum, which is a subsidiary of STI.
"The holding company will be liquidated and our shareholding will then be transferred to the two operating companies, which will see our stake in Asuransi Takaful Keluarga increasing to more than 70%," Mohamed Hassan said.
"Some of the minority shareholders (in STI) have expressed an interest to sell out and we also have some interested parties who are looking to buy a major stake (in our Indonesian entities). Thus, we have two options — we can issue new shares but that will mean our stake will be diluted, or they (interested parties) can buy the shares from the other minority shareholders that are looking to sell."

Source :  http://www.thesundaily.my/news/316060 - March 8, 2012

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