Samsung Fire eyes tapping Chinese auto-insurance market

SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., South Korea's top
non-life insurer, plans to begin auto insurance operations in China in the first
half of this year as it seeks to capitalize on the fast growing market, financial
sources said Wednesday.

Samsung Fire has been researching the Chinese car insurance market with a view to
making inroads there within the first six months of 2010, the sources said.
Samsung Fire would be the first South Korean insurer to operate in China's
lucrative auto insurance sector, with the exception of smaller rival Hyundai
Marine & Fire Insurance Co., whose Beijing unit offers insurance packaged only
with vehicles sold by its affiliate Hyundai Motor Co.
Samsung Fire's plans to expand abroad come as the local auto insurance market is
saturated, prompting insurers to shift attention overseas with an eye to China's
rapid growth in auto consumption.
Car sales in China reached 12.3 million units in the January-November period, up
42.4 percent from a year earlier, while the comparable figure stood at 1.4
million for South Korea.
The insurer aims to become a global top 20 player in 2012 and the world's 15th
biggest non-life insurer by 2015, Samsung Fire CEO Chi Dae-sub said in an
investor relations meeting last year, adding that "to achieve the goal, overseas
expansion is inevitable".
First launching operations in China in 2005, the company now has four branches in
the country.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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