KUALA LUMPUR: Despite present economic uncertainties and currency volatility, particularly in Asia, Tune Insurance Holdings Bhd (Tune Ins) is maintaining its double-digit growth projection for its top-line in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15).

Tune Ins chief executive officer Junior Cho said the group remained optimistic because empirical data on its forward sales indicate that double-digit growth seems reasonable.

This is coupled with strong double-digit growth for the first half of the year, with its general insurance outpacing the industry average in Malaysia, and its travel insurance achieving over 20% top-line growth.

“We remain confident because we look at our forward sales as an indicator of what the second half is going to look like.

“[Still], it’s hard not to ignore what is going on — the political uncertainties, the gloomy economic outlook, the volatility of the currencies in the region. [But] in terms of where we stand right now, we remain confident of our outlook,” Cho told reporters after the group’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) yesterday.

However, the group’s venture in Indonesia faced a setback when it terminated on Monday its conditional agreement to buy a majority stake in Indonesian insurer PT Asuransi Staco Mandiri for 82.86 billion rupiah (RM22.9 million).

“But it doesn’t change our strategy for Indonesia and Asean. This (the acquisition) would have been a catalyst to expedite our expansion in Indonesia, but it does not preclude us from pursuing a venture in Indonesia.

“We are looking at other strategic acquisitions,” Cho added, but did not elaborate.

Cho said the group has also been in talks with full service airlines and low-cost carriers for collaborations, but nothing has come of it to date.

Cho said the current take-up rate of travel insurance is rather small, with only 22 out of 100 flight passenger buying it. Hence, Tune Ins is segmenting different types of products to cater to the  various needs of the remaining market.

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on August 27, 2015.