Allianz keeps out of e-payments as rival acquires Boost

ALLIANZ Malaysia Bhd (AMB) has no plans to enter the e-payments sector but instead will remain aggressive in securing insurtech partnerships.

“The answer is no, we have no plans currently in place,” Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia Bhd chief executive officer (CEO) Joseph Gross said at a press conference today. Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia is a wholly owned unit of AMB.

Regional rival Great Eastern had acquired a strategic stake or 21.9% in Boost Holdings Sdn Bhd, which consists of an eponymous e-wallet service.

But AMB would remain aggressive in pushing for more insurtech partnerships, said Gross and AMB CEO Zakri Khir.

“We will continue to be aggressive, and continue to be as intense as we were for the past couple of years. We are fortunate to have partners who believe in us,” said Zakri.

In terms of health insurance claims, the duo shared that, during the movement control order (MCO), there were fewer road traffic accidents, which in turn led to fewer claims.

“But now that we are in the recovery phase and things are normalising, claim numbers are returning to a pre-MCO state, though we can only confirm this at the end of the year,” said Zakri.

With regard to how Covid-19 has affected health insurance claims, the duo said there would likely be pressure from new procedures in hospitals, which require the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Another pressure, they shared, was the depreciation of the ringgit. As the PPE is purchased in US dollars, any depreciation could see an impact on claims.

In terms of the group’s outlook, Zakri was confident that Allianz would grow this year.

“The bottomline looks decent at this time, with a pickup in customers. We are based in consumption, and we are now seeing economic activity. We believe there will be no impact to core profit this year,” he said, adding that revenue should see a single-digit growth for the year.

Gross, meanwhile, shared that the bottomline “should be in line, if not better, than 2019.”

Allianz had seen a revenue of RM1.48 bil for the first quarter of its 2020 financial year, with a profit of RM79.5 mil.

At the end of the morning’s trading, Allianz’s shares were last done at a static RM14.14, with 14,100 shares traded. – June 30, 2020

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