(1888PressRelease)
August 10, 2009 - BBVA Seguros earned net profit of €147.2 million in the first half of 2009, 10.7% more than a year earlier. This increase was boosted by the strong performance of all recurrent margins, which all saw double-digit growth as a result of the company’s high degree of specialization and greater management efficiency. In the individual life insurance business, premiums worth a total of €446 million were issued, 29.5% higher than in the first six months of 2008; Home insurance premiums grew by 10%, which, together with the strong performance of the ‘BBVA Coche’ car insurance line, produced overall premium growth in the non-life business of 12.9%. The company’s efficiency ratio stands at an all-time low of 4.6%.
* Net profit increased by 22.3% thanks to healthy growth in the technical results of all branches of the business
* Strong performance by all income statement lines
* Premiums issued totaled €687 million, an increase of 10.4% Premiums sold via the bancassurance channel, the company’s main channel of distribution, grew by 25.5%
* BBVA Seguros remains the market leader in individual life insurance, with a 12.01% share of premiums issued, and is increasing its lead over its closest competitors
BBVA Seguros has been the market leader in the individual life insurance business and the benchmark financial institution in the management of this type of product for several years, with more than 1.82 million policies under management, 143,000 of which were issued in the first half of 2009.
BBVA Seguros issued a total of €176.6 million worth of premiums in the first half-year period, giving it a 12.01% market share.
The company’s loan protection insurance policies performed better than the market, with over 118,000 new policies issued in the half-year. BBVA Seguros also promoted the sale of life insurance not linked to loans, leveraging the Seguros Personales BBVA product, a range of multi-option life insurance policies where customers can choose the most suitable coverage for their needs. Over 27,000 new policies were issued in the first six months of the year.
In 2008 BBVA Seguros expanded its range of savings products to offer more focused solutions for policyholders throughout their life savings cycle, and to achieve its objective of remaining the benchmark in this sector. These savings products showed a very solid performance in 2009.
To date over 34,000 customers have taken out a PIAS BBVA individual savings plan. This was added to the catalogue in 2008 with more than €94 million in premiums being issued in the first half of 2009.
In the first six months of 2009 €165 million in fixed annuity products were issued. This savings product now has almost 36,000 customers.
At the end of June 2009 BBVA managed €3.2 billion in individual savings funds and €5.3 billion in group funds.
Home Insurance
BBVA Seguros’ extremely high standards mean that over 830,000 customers currently rely on the company’s home insurance products. Some 39,000 new comprehensive home insurance policies were written in the first half of 2009.
In this period BBVA Seguros has issued €93 million of comprehensive home insurance policies, 10% more than the year before.
Seguro Coche BBVA
‘BBVA Coche’, an auto insurance product offering a full range of options at an extremely affordable price, was launched in 2008. This product has performed solidly in 2009, confirming it as a key driver of growth in BBVA Seguros' portfolio of non-life products. Over 12,000 vehicles are now insured by BBVA Seguros, with strong growth forecast for the rest of the year.
Income statement
BBVA Seguros posted significant improvement across all revenue lines. Gross margin grew by over 20% to €243.5 million, while the net margin advanced 22.3% to €232.4m. These performances are the result of increased activity, the company’s high degree of specialization and greater management efficiency. All this enabled BBVA Seguros to achieve a 10.7% increase in net attributable profit to €147.2 million.
The cost containment policy introduced by the company has pushed operating expenses and amortizations down by 8%, bringing the company’s efficiency ratio to another all-time low of 4.6%, compared with 5.7% at the end of 2008.
Profit before tax plus commissions for BBVA's entire insurance business in Spain and Portugal totaled €249.7 million.
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