KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 25): Tune Ins Holding Bhd saw its net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (4Q2014) increased 8.9% to RM22.85 million or 3.04 sen a share, due to better performance recorded by its general insurance segment.

“Profit before tax of general insurance segment increased by RM5.6 million, contributed by the growth of 10% in net earned premiums and improvement in underwriting margin, particularly lower net claims, in the current quarter,” the company said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.

For the full year of 2014, Tune Ins reported net profit of RM72.61 million or 9.66 sen a share, 6.8% higher than RM68 million in FY13.

In terms of revenue, the group raked in RM118.54 million for the quarter under review — an increase of 11.9% from RM105.87 million achieved in the previous corresponding period. For the whole year of 2014, revenue came in 14.3% higher at RM443.52 million.

On the outlook for FY15, Tune Ins said it is on track with its growth strategies across its core businesses. Its chief executive officer Junior Cho said he has set several key priorities for FY2015. These include “higher take up rate (TUR), impactful global marketing, travel partnership diversification, product innovation and channel digitalisation”.

He added the company’s two core businesses of Global Travel and Tune Insurance Malaysia Bhd (TIMB) will be focussing on improving quality growth.

“Global Travel will focus on improved TUR and more diversified travel partnerships, while TIMB will look to expand existing and new profitable classes of business.”

“For our Middle East and North Africa and Thailand entities, I expect to see higher contribution to our earnings. In addition, we will be rolling out a number of digital and marketing initiatives to further our reach directly to customers, as part of our digital strategy. This is in line with our aspiration to be the best digital insurer in ASEAN. To support this ASEAN expansion, we remain optimistic with our expansion plans into Indonesia by mid-2015,” Cho added.

Tune Ins closed 11 sen or 5.91% higher at RM1.97, with a market capitalisation of RM1.4 billion.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)