Sun Life profit grew to P4.3B in 2014

MANILA, Philippines–Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) chalked up a net profit of P4.3 billion in 2014, more than double the level in the previous year, and generated the highest premium income in the local life insurance industry for the fourth straight year.

Premium income generated by Sun Life Philippines last year amounted to P30.73 billion, based on the latest unaudited quarterly report and industry ranking released by the Insurance Commission, improving from the previous year’s level of P29.7 billion.

Philippine AXA Life overtook Philam Life as the second-largest life insurer in terms of premium income in 2014, generating P18.348 billion while the latter posted P18.311 billion in premium income.

Phil AXA improved its premium income in 2014 from last year’s P18.27 billion while Philam Life saw a modest decline from last year’s P19.97 billion.

The other top players were: Pru Life (P15.45 billion), BPI Philam (P14.48 billion); Manufacturers Life (P13.36 billion) and Insular Life (P11.7 billion).

The net income of P4.3 billion posted by Sun Life in 2014 did not include income from affiliate Sun Life Grepa Financial.

In terms of premium income, Sun Life Grepa separately generated P7 billion last year and was ranked as the eighth largest player next to Insular Life.

Sun Life Philippines president Riza Mantaring said: “2014 sales growth at 16 percent was still healthy although it was slower versus the prior four years where we were averaging over 36 percent a year. I guess you could say the entire industry took a bit of a breather,” she said.

“However, momentum resumed toward the latter half of the year (2014) and our sales in the fourth quarter were 50 percent higher than the same period last year. We have seen this momentum continue into the first quarter of this year, so hopefully this will be a strong year,” Mantaring told the Inquirer.

Of the P30.73 billion in premium income generated by Sun Life in 2014, the lion’s share amounting to P23.64 billion came from the “variable” insurance business while P7.09 billion came from the traditional life insurance business.

Variable unit-linked insurance is a hybrid between a mutual fund and life insurance, whereby investment returns depend on the market performance of the fund where the premium is invested.

“With the bulk of the sales continuing to be regular premium products, and which grew strongly at over 30 percent, this positions us for sustained growth in future years as majority of sales are longer paying plans such as whole-life and ten-pay plans,” Mantaring said.

“Further, even with the volatility and investor cautiousness last year, our single premium policies have remained very stable, as in prior years, with very little withdrawals or redemptions so that our assets under management have continued to increase significantly,” she said.