China United Property Insurance H1 Saw Premium Growth Fall

China United Property Insurance Company Limited, which once incurred huge amounts of losses, made profits in the first half of the year but premium growth rate dropped each month in the period.

The Urumqi-headquartered insurance firm brought in CNY 10 billion premium income in January-June period, falling by 14.84 percent year on year. It is one of the seven insurers that suffered negative growth, just following a 99.98 percent, 36.41 percent and 16.32 percent decline in China-Coal Insurance, Sunlight Agricultural Mutual Insurance and Ancheng Property & Casualty Insurance respectively, according to the latest data by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

However, China United Property Insurance saw market share shrink and premium growth slow down for straight years. Its 2007 premiums stood at CNY 18.3 billion and year-on-year growth was down to 21.61 percent; the premiums it gained in 2008 just rose by over CNY 800 million compared to the prior year but growth rate was off to 4.44 percent; the company saw premiums last year add by CNY 300 million and growth rate further decreased to 1.65 percent.