Fuelled by excellent performance in the overseas operations including US insurer Protective Life which was acquired in 2014, Dai-ichi Life Holdings, a Japan-based financial group, saw its net profit rise by 29.6% in the 2016-2017 fiscal year ending March 31.
The insurer posted a bottom line of ¥231.2 billion (US$2.03 billion), marking a sixth consecutive year of record profits and exceeding the initial forecast of ¥197 billion.
Stockholding gains from the integration of it's asset management business with Mizuho Financial Group also gave it a significant boost. As such, Dai-ichi Life foresees net profit dropping off by about 20% to ¥179 billion in the current fiscal year ending in March 2018.
While net profit was up, premium and other income decreased with Dai-ichi Life’s income sliding by around 20% to ¥4.40 trillion. This was due to the ultralow interest rates in the Japanese market forcing insurers to scale back on the sale of single-premium policies. A similar trend has been seen with two other Japanese insurers; T&D Holdings suffered a 4% drop to ¥1.5 trillion and Sony Life Insurance sliding 7% to ¥956.7 billion.
On the other hand, all three insurers experienced increased core earnings due to an improved market environment, allowing them to reduce reserves for insurance payouts. Dai-ichi Life’s profit rose 3% to ¥558.4 billion, while T&D registered an increase of 5% to ¥159.9 billion. Meanwhile, Sony Life’s profit almost doubled to ¥83.8 billion.
