The top three nonlife insurance groups secured profitability in fiscal 2009, rebounding from the previous year's dismal results amid the global financial crisis, according to their consolidated earnings reports released Thursday.
Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. logged a net profit of ¥128.42 billion in the year that ended in March, up 5.5-fold from ¥23.14 billion the previous year and the largest under the current holding company system adopted in 2002.
The steep profit increase was due largely to strong performance of a U.S. nonlife insurance group that Tokio Marine acquired in 2008, as well as a sharp fall in writedowns in securities due to higher stock prices. Net premium income, which corresponds to sales for ordinary companies, grew 7.4 percent to ¥2.29 trillion.
MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc., which was created April 1 through the integration of management by three companies, booked a net premium income of ¥2.52 trillion by combining the three units' incomes, down 2.8 percent but surpassing Tokio Marine as the biggest premium income earner.
But the net profit for MS&AD, comprising Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group Holdings Inc., Aioi Insurance Co. and Nissay Dowa General Insurance Co., was about half that of Tokio Marine at ¥57.30 billion, a turnaround from the previous year's ¥9.4 billion in net loss.