PRUNDENTIAL'S PROFIT PLUNGES 80 PCT

Jakarta, Apr 15 (ANTARA) - Insurance company PT Prudential Indonesia said on Tuesday its net profit after tax in 2008 plunged 80 percent to Rp120 billion from Rp517.8 billion a year earlier.

"The drop was mainly caused by tax payments which reached Rp867 billion," the company's president director, Kevin Holmgren, said in a press conference.
Overall, the company's profit before tax last year grew by 4 percent to Rp987 billion, fueled by premium payments which rose by 27.5 percent to Rp7.02 trillion from a year earlier, he said.
The premium payments consisted of Rp4.14 trillion from new premiums and Rp2.9 trillion from renewed premiums, he said.
Last year, the company earned Rp844 billion from its sharia-based insurance business, consisting of Rp821 billion from new premiums and Rp23 billion from renewed premiums, he said.
"Income from the sharia-based insurance business contributed 25 percent of the total income," he said.
Holmgren said last year the company received Rp253 billion from bancaassurance premiums, jumping 320 percent from the year before.
Meanwhile, Nini Sumohandoyo, the company's communications director, said Pruedential would focus on sharia-based insurance this year.
"Sharia insurance business is still very promising in the country where Muslims make up the majority group and sharia-based insurance business still holds 13 percent of the market share," he said.