NIPPONKOA UNVEILS EIGHT-YEAR PLAN

Japanese insurer Nipponkoa has released a medium-term business plan that aims for a net profit of ¥50bn a year by 2014. It said that it would achieve this through increased sales in life assurance and overseas non-life operations. The company made net profit of ¥13.5bn in fiscal 2004. The company said that the expansion in life operations and non-life business abroad should start contributing to the bottom line in fiscal 2008. It said that it would begin by focusing on property cover to Japanese business operating in China, Vietnam and Russia. It also said that it planned to boost its sales of medical insurance at home. For fiscal 2004 nearly all of Nipponkoa’s profit came from domestic non-life operations. The company’s life business is still building up solvency reserves. Nipponkoa said that by 2014 life operations should be contributing between 15% and 25% of net profit. Non-life operations overseas would contribute about 5% of total profit, the company said.