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eneral insurance company Asuransi Bintang is ready to spin-off its sharia business unit in 2017, having already filed its proposal to do so with the Financial Service Authority (OJK).

“We’ve prepared the spin-off by transferring some conventional businesses to the sharia unit, finding new business-to-business partners and increasing the equity,” Asuransi Bintang president director Hastanto Sri Margi Widodo said during an extraordinary shareholders meeting in Jakarta on Friday.

Asuransi Bintang’s sharia business currently has total assets of Rp 115 billion (US$8.7 million). Its debts stand at Rp 37 billion. It has equity of Rp 78 billion, much higher than the OJK’s minimum requirement of Rp 50 billion in equity to become a sharia insurance entity.

“We need to strengthen the capital structure and business,” Hastanto added.

The company’s sharia unit contributed Rp 33 billion gross premium income in the first half, down by 18.5 percent compared to the same period last year. The health insurance business is struggling to find its way out of the doldrums following the introduction of the government’s healthcare insurance program through the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan). — JP