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nsurance company PT Commonwealth Life aims to secure more strategic partnerships with several companies as its alternative distribution channels as part of efforts to boost its total premium income growth by 13 percent this year, an executive has said.

Commonwealth Life alternative distribution channels director Pieter Wattimena said the firm, a part of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) Group, had made the strategy as it had seen an increase in income from alternative channels, such as banks and multi-financing companies rather than agents.

'€œSixty to 70 percent of our new premium income comes from alternative distribution and the remainder from agents,'€ Pieter said at a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

The insurance company aims to secure partnerships with at least two firms this year, and has been in process of settling contracts with three early this month.

The three new partnerships, targeted to take effect in April, are with Adira Finance in form of credit life insurance, Qatari National Bank in bancassurances and PT Telekomunikasi Seluler (Telkomsel) in the form of marketing cooperation.

The new partners will be new additions to the firm'€™s existing 21 partners, which are mostly banks and multi-financing companies, according to Pieter.

He added that the firm expected to boost its gross premium income by 13 percent this year after seeing 8 percent growth last year.

Based on its audited financial report, the firm'€™s gross premium income as of September last year had grown by 8.3 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 1.3 trillion (US$93.72 million).

'€œThe year 2015 was indeed a tough year for the business as a result of the impact of global economic slowdown,'€ Pieter said.

From 2010 to 2014, the company saw an average growth of 11.36 percent, lower than the industry'€™s 16 percent premium growth increase yoy according to data from Indonesian Life Insurance Association (AAJI).

Commonwealth Life was renamed from the original PT Asuransi Jiwa Sedaya in 2007 after being acquired by the CBA Group.

The audited report also puts the company'€™s asset value at Rp 6.7 trillion, claims at Rp 771 billion and underwriting profit at Rp 880 billion.

In three years from now, Commonwealth Life targets to increase its premium income by 60 percent, claims by 28 percent and underwriting profit by 132 percent.

The investment portfolio of the company comprises 50 percent time deposits and 50 percent bonds, dominated by government bonds, with only a small percentage accounted for by private bonds, since the company had adopted a conservative approach, Pieter said.

'€œWe also hope to see the number of customers reach 700,000 to 800,000 by 2018 from 500,000 at present,'€ Pieter said.

Besides forming more partnerships, he said that the firm would also add 1,000 more agents to the existing 5,000 currently working for the company.

'€œWe aren'€™t really setting a high number for it as we also want to focus on improving their productivity,'€ he remarked.

The firm is also upbeat about it'€™s growth as insurance penetration in the country has so far only reached 2.51 percent of the total population of 250 million people. (rbk)