Bumper Growth for Iran Energy Insurance

EghtesadOnline: Insurance industry’s total premium income during the nine months to December 20 amounted to 200 trillion rials ($5.24 billion), registering a 21.33% growth compared with the same period of last year.

News ID: ۷۳۹۹۰۶

19 February 2017

Insurers sold 38.6 million insurance policies during the period.

Among these, oil and energy sector’s generated premiums registered the highest growth in the period—at 114.3%. However, with a premium income of 2.48 trillion rials ($65 million), the category accounted for 1.24% of insurers’ portfolio.

The surge in insurers’ income from the “oil and energy” category could be the result of a number of accidents involving refineries and petrochemical complexes across the country, Financial Tribune reported.

A syndicate of 11 insurance companies led by Iran Insurance Company was to pay an estimated €60 million in damages to Bou Ali Petrochemical Complex over a devastating blaze in July.

The total paid claims in the category reached 565 billion rials ($14.8 million), marking a record growth of 1112.8% compared with the same period of last year.

Insurers paid 13.4 billion rials ($583,000) to claims in this category during the nine months to December 21, 2015, according to the Central Insurance of Iran’s database.

Marine insurance premiums experienced a 27.5% drop probably due to the availability of foreign insurance coverage as a result of the lifting of sanctions.

Iranian insurance firms paid 116.5 trillion rials ($3.05 billion) in claims during the nine months to December 20, registering a 24.8% growth Y/Y. The loss ratio of the industry was 58.11% in this period.

Iranian insurance companies generated 26.2 trillion rials ($686.7 million) by selling 2 million life insurance policies, marking a 38% growth in premium income and 20% growth in the number of life policies sold, compared with the same period of last year.

Other Categories

According to the latest data released by the Central Insurance of Iran–the industry’s regulator–life insurance category’s paid claims amounted to 8.42 trillion rials ($220.7 million) during this period, marking a 37% growth year-on-year.

The category’s loss ratio was 32%, recording a meager drop of 0.22% compared with the same period of last year.

Personal auto policies remained insurers’ main source of revenue, accounting for 38% of insurers’ portfolio. Health and medical insurance followed with a 26.1% share in total generated premiums.

PAP and health categories together accounted for 74.6% of paid losses.

Iran Insurance Company, the only state-owned firm in the market, accounted for 38.5% of total generated premiums. The remaining premiums were generated by 28 private firms. IIC’s loss ratio for the third quarter of Iranian fiscal year was 85.87%, according to the released data.

IIC also accounted for 41% of losses paid in the Q3, paying 18.1 trillion rials ($474 million) for 6.5 million claims.

Data on insurers’ performance in Q3 indicate a 34% market share for IIC. Asia Insurance, Dana Insurance, Alborz Insurance and Parsian Insurance, four big private insurers, together accounted for 31.67% of the market in Q3.

IIC-affiliate Iran Moein Insurance, licensed to operate in free trade zones, generated more than 1 trillion rials ($308.7) in premiums, marking a 116% growth Y/Y. The firm performed better than five other FTZ insurance firms, but its market share was 1.7% during the third quarter of the Iranian year.