Japan’s second-biggest life insurer Dai-ichi Life said Friday net profit more than doubled in the fiscal year to March boosted by strong demand for its products.
Dai-ichi Life Insurance, which listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in April in one of the world’s biggest initial public offerings, said it made 55.67 billion yen (599 million dollars) up from 21.8 billion yen the previous year. Revenue rose 1.3 percent to 5.3 trillion yen. Dai-ichi attributed the strong performance to a rise in life insurance products and a reduction in benefits and claims to customers.
Dai-ichi said it recorded an extraordinary loss of 92.5 billion yen in an allowance for shareholder dividends. However, the group forecast net profit to fall 10 percent to 50 billion yen for the financial year to the end of March 2011 as revenue falls 18.3 percent to 4.33 trillion yen.
Facing a declining home market due to Japan’s ageing and shrinking population, Dai-ichi held an IPO in April to raise funds for expansion, including in emerging markets such as India, Thailand and Vietnam. The issue was the largest in the world since US financial services group Visa launched in March 2008, and the biggest in Japan since mobile operator NTT DoCoMo in 1998.Shares closed at 160,000 yen Friday, the same level at the time of the listing when they surged against an IPO price of 140,000 yen.
Tokyo, May 14, 2010 (AFP)
