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Today's Headlines Insurance
Both Indonesia's Trade Ministry and the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) confirmed that the mandatory national insurance for coal and crude palm oil (CPO) exports regulation has been postponed by another six months. Thus the regulation is now expected to come into effect per 1 February 2019.
Indonesia-based general insurance company Asuransi Tugu Pratama Indonesia, which is majority-owned by state-owned energy company Pertamina, will offer 282.35 million new shares to the public through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The number of shares offered to the public is equivalent to 15 percent of the company's total shares.
Tugu Pratama Indonesia, an Indonesia-based general insurance company, announced it will not conduct its initial public offering (IPO) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017 as initially targeted. Instead, it now targets to become a publicly listed company in the first half of 2018. Corporate Secretary Syaiful Azhar said there were several internal and external obstacles that blocked the IPO.
New York-based Fitch Ratings, one of the three major global credit rating agencies, expects demand growth in Indonesia's life and non-life insurance sectors to occur over the medium term on the country's (currently still) low insurance penetration rate, improving risk awareness, and the expanding middle class segment within the rising population of Southeast Asia's largest economy. Meanwhile, the credit rating agency believes Indonesia's car and motorcycle sales will remain under pressure in 2016 due to weak consumer spending.
Following the enactment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) will allow foreign insurance corporations to open a branch office in Indonesia. The AEC will transform the ASEAN region into a region with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour, as well as a freer flow of capital. Currently, foreign insurance corporations are prohibited from opening a branch in Indonesia unless it is in the form of a joint venture company with a 80 percent foreign ownership limit.
The World Bank's latest report discusses healthcare. Indonesia is one of many countries that aims to achieve universal health coverage for its population. However, several challenges need to be faced and overcome in order to reach this goal, which the country hopes to achieve by 2019. Although health insurance coverage has increased significantly in Indonesia over the last decade, almost 60 percent of Indonesia's population still remains without any coverage, and out-of-pocket spending remains high even among those with coverage.
Latest Columns Insurance
After the devastating 6.9 and 7.4-magnitude earthquakes in Lombok and Central Sulawesi in August and September, local people and businessmen have again been made aware of the risks involved when living, working and investing in Indonesia, a country that is located on the notorious Ring of Fire. This Ring of Fire is a major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean, a center of seismic activity - triggered by tectonic movements - and thus prone to frequent earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.
The Indonesian government set a 80 percent cap on foreign ownership in Indonesian insurance companies through Government Regulation No. 14/2018 on Foreign Ownership of Insurance Companies. Suahasil Nazara, Fiscal Policy Head at Indonesia's Finance Ministry, said foreigners can remain controlling a big stake (up to 80 percent) in the domestic insurance industry because it is believed that domestic insurance players still need the knowledge and capital that strategic foreign investors bring from abroad.
Through Trade Ministry Regulation No. 82/2017 on the Terms of Use of National Shipping and Insurance Companies for the Export and Import of Certain Goods the Indonesian government requires exporters of crude palm oil (CPO), coal and rice to use ships that are owned by local sea transport companies as well as to use domestic insurance. This regulation will come into effect, gradually, per May 2018.
On Wednesday (11/10) Malacca Trust Wuwungan lnsurance became the 26th company that listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017. The company, subsidiary of Singapore-based Malacca Trust Limited and linked to the family of former president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, is one of the oldest insurance companies in Indonesia (established in 1952).
Indonesian parliament (DPR) decided not to limit foreign ownership in Indonesian insurance companies. Currently, foreigners can have an 80 percent stake in a local insurance company. A new insurance bill on this matter is expected to be passed in a plenary session next month. This bill will enable foreign investors to continue to own local insurance companies through the share-purchase mechanism at the Indonesia stock exchange (IDX). Another important point in the new bill involves the legal entity of the local insurance firm.
