With its new Yangon office in Myanmar, the company said it has become the first Southeast Asian life insurer to receive approval and permit from the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration of Myanmar.
Maung Maung Thein, chairman of Insurance Business Supervisory Board and Deputy Minister, Ministry of Finance, Myanmar, attended the opening of the office.
Chris Wei, group chief executive, Great Eastern Holdings said: “These are extraordinary times for Myanmar. As its economy continues to expand and open up, we see tremendous opportunities where we can support the Myanmar authorities to develop the local insurance industry.
“Myanmar has a population of over 60 million, with one of the lowest insurance penetration rates in Asia. We believe Great Eastern Life has much to offer in terms of an attractive customer value proposition and we are confident we can play an important role to help develop Myanmar's insurance industry through increasing awareness as well as sharing of knowledge and information with the local operators.”
For the quarter ended December, the company reported a 19% on-year rise in total weighted new sales to S$306.5m with growth across all channels in Singapore and a pick-up in sales of savings and retirement products in Malaysia, as well as continuing growth in takaful sales.
New business embedded value, a measure of long-term economic profitability, rose by 41% year-on-year to S$146.3m for the quarter, which the company attributed to a shift in distribution channels and product mix towards higher margin sales along with change in risk-adjusted discount rates to better reflect market conditions.
Great Eastern is the oldest life insurance group in Singapore and Malaysia. With S$61bn in assets and around 4m policyholders, it has three successful distribution channels, a tied agency force, bancassurance, and a financial advisory firm, Great Eastern Financial Advisers.
The group also operates in Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei and has a joint venture in China.
