Hanwha Life Insurance Co., Ltd. ($A088350)

Now we will begin the presentation on Hanwha Life's First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Results.

Good afternoon. This is [ Kim ] from the IR team at Hanwha Life Insurance. Today's earnings call for the first quarter of 2026 will proceed through consecutive interpretation, and the presentation materials are available on our IR website. Today, CFO, Jung Yong-Ho, will first give a presentation, which will be followed by the Q&A session. Let me hand over to our CFO.

Good afternoon. This is CFO, Jung Yong-Ho. Thank you for joining our earnings presentation. Please note that today's presentation is based on K-IFRS. Let me begin the report on the earnings for the first quarter of 2026. Page 1 is on earnings highlights. In Q1 of 2026, we delivered solid financial results as our net profit expanded on the back of the improved performance of key indicators such as protection APE growth, expansion of new business CSM, net growth of in-force CSM and new business profitability enhancements. First, protection APE maintained an upward trend with a 1.8% growth year-over-year, and new business CSM increased significantly by 25.1% year-over-year to KRW 610.9 billion. In-force CSM also expanded to KRW 8.9 trillion, and new business multiple improved year-over-year by 2x to 9.8x. Hanwha Life posted KRW 381.6 billion in consolidated net profit, up 29% year-over-year, demonstrating stronger earnings fundamentals. Page 2 is on protection APE and new business APE (sic) [ new business CSM ]. Protection APE grew 1.8% year-on-year to KRW 700.3 billion while new business CSM expanded by 25.1% year-over-year to KRW 610.9 billion through margin-focused sales growth. New business CSM profitability improved to 9.8x with the profitability of whole-life policies enhanced to 7.1x through higher sales of longer premium policies. Page 3 is on the sales organization. The number of FPs increased to 37,647, thanks to expanded recruiting led by Hanwha Life Financial Service. The 13th month persistency rose to 90.2% due to persistency management programs and strengthening of systems. The FP retention rate has also improved by 2.2 percentage points from the end of last year to 55.8%. Page 4 is on in-force CSM, which grew KRW 207.3 billion Q-o-Q to approximately KRW 8.9 trillion. On a year-over-year basis, improvements were made across major categories including new business CSM growth and reduction in experience variance adjustment and VFA adjustments. Hanwha Life aims to achieve stable new business CSM growth based on industry's leading channel competitiveness and increase medium- and long-term in-force CSM through consistency improvement and reduction in experience variance adjustments. Page 5 is on net profit. We posted KRW 381.6 billion in consolidated net profit, up 29% year-over-year, driven by the separate net deposits and profitability enhancement of major subsidiaries. Specifically, separate net profit of Hanwha Life came in at KRW 247.8 billion, up 103.2% year-over-year, while major subsidiaries also posted strong earnings with KRW 98.9 billion by Hanwha General Insurance, KRW 7.5 billion by Hanwha Asset Management, KRW 28.3 billion by Hanwha Securities and KRW 45.3 billion by the overseas subsidiaries. Net income attributable to owners of the parent company reported KRW 324.4 billion, up 43.5% year-over-year, demonstrating that the company's earnings power has further improved on a consolidated basis. Page 7 provides details on revenue breakdown. On a separate basis, Hanwha Life Insurance income recorded KRW 62.4 billion, showing steady improvement on the back of clean variance improvement and reduction in owner contract expense. Investment profit posted KRW 241.9 billion, thanks to continued increase in recurring gains such as interest dividend outcome and improved outcomes from long-term investment strategies. Page 7 shows financial overview of the subsidiaries. Our subsidiaries consist of GA companies, including Hanwha Life Financial Service, domestic financial subsidiaries such as Hanwha General Insurance and Hanwha Asset Management, overseas insurance subsidiaries in Vietnam and Indonesia and overseas financial subsidiaries such as Nobu Bank and Velocity that we acquired last year, and they are generating stable profits based on competitiveness in their respective business areas. . The combined net income of the GA subsidiaries is KRW 23.3 billion, while KRW 145.7 billion is from the domestic financial subsidiaries, KRW 21.1 billion from the overseas insurance subsidiaries and KRW 24.2 billion from the overseas financial subsidiaries. Hanwha Life will continue to strengthen earnings fundamentals through competitiveness improvement of subsidiaries and expanded synergy with Hanwha Life. Page 8 is on asset management. We are managing an investment portfolio mainly comprising of interest-bearing assets with 61% domestic bonds, 19% overseas securities and 13% loan assets. Investment yields in the first quarter was 3.37%, up 17 basis points Q-on-Q despite increased volatility in the financial market caused by the geopolitical risk. Going forward, we will strengthen AMN and basis for investment returns by expanding interest and dividend income from interest-bearing assets and continue to drive investment yields by securing additional profit through long-term investment in high-quality assets. Regarding our bond and loan portfolio, please refer to the relative slides, Pages 9 and 10. Next, Page 11, is on K-ICS and duration gap. Our Q1 K-ICS ratio is estimated to 162%, up 4.5 percentage points quarter-over-quarter, mainly driven by new business CSM growth. Asset and liability durations are 11.3 years and 10.7 years, respectively, with the duration gap stable at 0.41 years. This is the end of the earnings presentation for the first quarter of 2026. We will now proceed with the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question will be provided by Julia Kim from JPMorgan Securities.

I'm Kim Julia from JP Morgan Securities. I would like to ask two questions. My first question is related to your CSM adjustments. Back in 2024 and 2025, you can see that there were significant amounts of negative adjustments to the CSM. So I want to understand the breakdown of these adjustments in the past as well as your guidance with the CSM movement for 2020. My second question has to do with your exposure to private equity funds as well as private credit. Recently in the market, there have been growing concerns over closures. So I'd like to understand your exposure to this type of assets as well as potential risks. So do you believe that your current exposure level to private credit is suitable or appropriate? Or what kind of stance do you have regarding this asset class in the medium to long run? And if there are any particular risk or potential volatility to valuations of these asset classes, what are in your consideration?

I'm from the actuary team. Let me respond to your first question on our CSM movements as I make comparisons with those from the first quarter of last year. In the past, there was a significant amount of VFA adjustments. However, this amount is rather very minimal or insignificant coming from this year. We had a significant VFA adjustment in the past, mainly because of the changes to the discount regulations by the Financial Supervisory Authority, which resulted in the inability to hedge against the variable policy. However, now we have more stability in the insurance liabilities. So that is why we have a minimal amount of VFA adjustments. So excluding the component of VFA adjustment, when we look back on the numbers in the first quarter of 2025, there was experience variance adjustment with respect to some expense and other investment differences, which led to the negative adjustment of KRW 430 billion. But there was a positive adjustment from RA-related accounts by about KRW 100 billion. So the total negative adjustment was KRW 330 billion. And this year, the impact of sales is negative KRW 310 billion and there is an insignificant amount of sale-related adjustment which is KRW 3 billion. So there was an improvement of KRW 120 billion regarding expense -- less variance. And given the fact that we had large VFA adjustments last year, there is an improvement in the adjustment amount by KRW 400 billion. Because of the reduction in the amount to CSM adjustment, which is about KRW 400 billion, if this had occurred last year, then we would have seen a net growth in the CSM balance. Therefore, we are expecting an increase in the CSM balance this year on a full year basis.

I am [ Lee ] from the investment planning team. Let me respond to your question on our exposure to private debt. The amount of exposure to private debt currently stands at KRW 1.6 trillion, and this is about 1.7% of the total alternative investments that we have in our portfolio. And most of these investments in private debt have occurred since 2020 and they are concentrated on advanced economies, including the U.S. and Europe, and it is well diversified through high-quality GPs in various sectors. The IRR is more than 10%. We are fully aware of the recent rising concerns over private debt in the market because of the exposure of these private credit to the underlying assets that are mainly in the high-tech industries, which have led to a deterioration of the loan quality and the asset quality, which may also pose systemic risks. While the particular concern of private debt that has concern has concentration of tech sector, which is about 20%, our exposure to private credit is well diversified across many different sectors and the delinquency rate is very low. However, we do see that there is potential of these concerns with respect to project credit to exposure to our funds, even though they are close and tight. So given the potential indirect impact from this particular market segment, we will continue to focus on preventing any concentration in any particular sector and continue to look for high-quality assets and maintain diversification. So we do see that there is an increase in risk regarding private debt, but most of our exposures are senior loans with high-quality asset class. And so we will be able to endure any stress situation. And going forward, we will strengthen monitoring especially over individual companies within the portfolio so that we will not only present concentration in any particular factor but look at the underlying companies in order to strengthen our monitoring. Thank you.

The following question will be presented by [ Yang Jinzhou ] from [ M Securities ].

I am [ Kim ] from [ M Securities ]. I'd like to ask you three questions. First of all, I'd like to get some detailed breakdown of your disposal gains and the valuation gains in your investment profit. And secondly, I can see that the multiple for our whole-life price improved quite significantly when we look at the new business CSM profitability, while multiple for long-term health insurance has declined. So I'd like to get more information on your overall product mix that has produced this result. And the third question has to do with your overseas subsidiaries, and their earnings has been improving quite significantly. So I'd like to understand the reasons behind this performance improvement and what is your expected target coming from the subsidiaries.

I'm [ Lee Chan-Soo ] from the investment planning team. Let me answer your question on the breakdown for our investment profit. Before I talk about valuation gains, I'd like to mention that since last year, we have been focusing on strengthening ALM through long-term bond purchase, which has resulted in the increase in interest income on a year-over-year basis. And at the same time, as we mentioned, we have seen an increase in dividend income and valuation gains in the first quarter, mainly attributable to a positive performance of alternative investments. And since 2020, we have been focusing on medium- and long-term investments in the alternative investment universe, including KKR and also focusing on companies in the AI business as well as environment and solar energy. And thanks to our strategic investments first, we were able to benefit from increase in dividend income and valuation gains in the first quarter. We do acknowledge that there may be a [ policy ] to our dividend and the valuation gain with a potential decline in dividend payments and interest rate movement. However, as we see continuous improvement in the PVC performance, we do believe that there will be a visible movement in the investment profit going forward as well.

I am [ Lee ] from the product development team. Let me address your question on our CSM multiples in the first quarter. As you mentioned, the new business CSM multiple for Whole-Life has improved. It is mainly because of the shift from shorter premium paying term policies to longer premium paying policies. Secondly, there was a decline in the new business CSM multiple for health insurance. It has to do with the launch of Signature H, combined or integrated health insurance, which is very competitive in the industry. But initially, when we look at the portfolio, there is a larger portion of nonrenewable type, which has led to a decline in the health insurance CSM multiple. However, we have launched and introduced 70 new renewal type policy products for April, which will help increase the CSM multiple for health insurance products as well.

I'm [ Ige-san ] from the global business team. Let me address your question on our overseas subsidiaries performance. In the case of our business in Vietnam, they were able to increase their persistency rates as well as investment income, leading to an increase in the overall earnings. The same is applied to our business in Indonesia. And we have started consolidating Nobu Bank and Nexus Clearing, and these noninsurance financial subsidiaries, they have also produced solid earnings, leading to the combined earnings coming from the subsidiaries overseas. And regarding your question on our potential global further expansion plans, our basic principle for global expansion is that there should be synergies and contribution to our core business, which is about distribution of the insurance policy products as well as investment and product development. We also would like to enhance customer value in the respective markets. Under this principle, we will potentially pursue global expansion. However, we don't have any specific plan for additional global expansion at this point.

The following question will be presented by [ Jae-Han Bang ] from Goldman Sachs.

I'm from [ Kang ] Goldman Sachs. I would like to ask you two questions. First of all, your ratio has improved in the first quarter. And when it comes to the Tier 1 capital ratio or the core capital ratio, it was 58% in the fourth quarter. So I'd like to know your core capital ratio in the first quarter as well as your internal target. And secondly, as your performance continues to improve, I'd like to know when you would be able to resume dividend payments. And do you believe that regulatory easing is mandatory or a necessity for you to be able to resume dividend payout?

I am [ Park Su-won ] from the risk management team. Let me comment on your question on our core capital ratio. We're currently in the process of closing up, which is to be done by the end of May. So it may be subject to change. But as we stand, the first quarter Tier 1 capital ratio is 60%. And regarding our target core capital ratio for the end of 2026, our target is to keeps it above 60%. And to be able to achieve this, we will continue to implement various measures, including our efforts to reduce claims variance, thereby reducing the basic assumption related risk amount and utilizing core insurance and try to reduce our sensitivity to interest rate movement and prepare to get the approval for the internal model so that we can reduce the required capital. Thank you.

I'm [ Kim Dong-Yee ] from the finance team. Let me comment on your question on the timeline for dividend resumption as well as regulatory improvement. Just like last year, we continue to work closely with the Life Insurance Association to be able to improve the regulations over undervalued reserves. And there is a broad-based consensus on the need for the improvement of surrender value reserve scheme. So we will continue to work in that direction so that we can enhance shareholder value. .

So I'd like to know specifically the timeline that you have in mind for dividend payout resumption.

Our #1 priority right now is to ensure that regulations will improve on surrender value reserve. So once that happens, we will make sure to communicate that with the market.

The following question will be presented by [ Yang Jinen ] from Kiwoom Securities.

I'm [ Ahn Young-Jun ] from Kiwoom Securities. I'd like to ask a question on your experience variance adjustment, especially variance adjustments and its impact on your insurance profit. Last year, because of this large amount of variance adjustments, there was a negative impact on your overall earnings. But for 2 consecutive quarters, we were able to see an improvement, especially in terms of claims variance. So I'd like to know if we can expect this type of improvement to be a trend going forward.

I'm from the business management team. Let me answer your question. So when we look at the claims variance on a year-over-year basis, there was a slight increase in the first quarter. But as we mentioned, since the second half of last year, we've been continuing to work hard to reduce claims variance, especially by lowering limits for covers and riders that have potential for an increase in claims variance as well as strengthening underwriting. As a result of these efforts, we were able to see a declining trend for claims variance starting from the third quarter of last year. So on a full year basis, we do expect a significant reduction in claims variance. And when we look at the expense variance, we expect that there will be a plus on a full year basis. We will continue to strengthen our underwriting practices and enhance responses to potential insurance loss as well as minimizing the claims leakage. And at the same time, we will continue to enhance expense efficiency so that we can implement our expenses and pay claims within the assumption. And this will lead to a positive impact on our P&L, and this will also drive insurance profit to grow. Thank you. .

The following question will be presented by Do Ha Kim from Hanwha Investment & Securities.

I'm Kim Do Ha from Hanwha Investment & Securities. My first question has to do with the timeline on when you're planning to apply the new guidelines on actuarial assumptions. And if you can provide us with some color on the impact of such new guidelines on your overall earnings, I would appreciate that. Secondly, you talked about alternative investments and their positive performance but you didn't share specific numbers. So I have to understand how much was the valuation gains and how much were total gains when it comes to returns from alternative investments. And the third question is actually rather an accounting treatment related question, and it has to do with your reserve numbers. And given the future reserves that you need to provision, I wonder if these will fall within the scope of retained earnings. And you may communicate separately if necessary.

I'm from actuary support. Thank you for your question. So again, to talk about the potential financial impact of the new guidelines on actuarial assumptions and our response plans. With intensifying competition in the protection insurance market, there was a decline in mortality gains leading to the regulators' proposal of new guidelines on actuarial assumptions, including strengthening of loss ratio assumptions for new covers as well as adjustment of expenses in consideration of inflation. These changes are expected to have an impact on new business profitability as well as in-force CSM. However, as for the specific or more detailed impact, a it requires further interpretation of the guidelines. So we are working with a third-party consulting firm, and this process will be completed by the end of June. Therefore, we will be able to share with you specific financial impacts from the revised guidelines after we close the second quarter in 2026. However, we are working in a preemptive manner to respond to these changes so that we can preserve and increase our CSM talent. In other words, we are strengthening underwriting limits and control over covers that leads to increased claims variance, and we continue to monitor covers and protections that may have higher risk loss ratio. And since April this year, we have adjusted or lowered assumed rates for health insurance policies, and we're shifting to selling more longer premium paying policies, and we're also trying to turn some of these riders into renewal type so that we can minimize our potential losses. And we are also planning to revise our product designs in consideration of these guidelines sometime in July.

I'm from the investment planning team. Let me comment on your question on our returns or profit from alternative investments. There is no disposal gains that we got from alternative investments, but rather it is coming from dividend income as well as valuation profit. Divided income side in the first quarter is KRW 420 billion on a cumulative basis, and the valuation gains for the first quarter is KRW 198 billion.

I'm [ Kim Dong-Yee ] from the finance team. Regarding your third question on accounting treatment, we will check specific data and get back to you later. Thank you.

The following question will be presented by Jun-Sup Jung from NH Investment & Securities.

I'm Jung Jun-Sup from NH Investment & Securities. I can see that there is an increasing contribution coming from your subsidiaries for your consolidated earnings performance. So from the perspective of the financial holding, in the long run, I'd like to understand your plan or target for the breakdown between life and non-life companies, including the GA companies, asset management and securities. Especially, I'd like to understand your overall strategy for the allocation of resources and capital across different financial companies in a rather holding structure. And I'd like to also understand your overall target earnings contribution coming from non-life subsidiaries.

I'm from the business management team. Let me respond to your question. Let us first look at the breakdown of performance on a consolidated basis for the first quarter. The pretax profit for the first quarter is KRW 484.6 billion, which is an increase of KRW 170.3 billion on a year-over-year basis. When we look at this in terms of the breakdown by sectors, we have Hanwha Life and Hanwha General Insurance, these are insurance businesses and the pretax profit is KRW 463.4 billion. And for our Hanwha Securities and Hanwha Life Financial Service and GA companies, their pretax profit is KRW 17.7 billion, and noninsurance financial subsidiaries in Korea, that's about KRW 61 billion. So in the first quarter, not only our major subsidiaries including Hanwha Life General Insurance, Hanwha Investment & Securities as well as Hanwha Life Financial Service, we were able to see a positive increase of earnings from other insurance companies, especially overseas entities in Vietnam and Indonesia as well as GA companies like People Life and noninsurance subsidiaries, such as Nobu Bank, Velocity and Savings Bank. So we have seen a very positive year-over-year improvement in their contribution. And as for our strategy for resource allocation across different subsidiaries, this strategy has already been almost completed. And in the first quarter, we saw a very positive trend of performance improvement. So we do expect continued improvement of our earnings on a consolidated basis. And we do expect that these subsidiaries will continue to make positive contributions based on strengthened competitiveness in their respective areas on top of the stability in our insurance operations in Korea. So under this type of consolidated structure, we expect an increase in earnings from the GA companies, including Hanwha Life Financial Service, and further improvement in earnings coming from overseas subsidiaries, including Nobu Bank and Velocity as well as continuous performance improvement of domestic financial subsidiaries, including Hanwha Investment & Securities and Hanwha General Insurance. As you can see, we have a diversified portfolio of businesses, which will lead to continuous improvement in the consolidated performance as we continue to expand our future profits.

I have a follow-up question. Can you give us more details on your allocation strategy? In other words, what industries or what particular sectors are you planning to strengthen going forward? And what type of targets do you have for these sectors?

Again, this from business management. We don't have any expansion focused on increasing the proportion or weight of any particular sector. Our basis is firmly in insurance profit as well as investment profit coming from Hanwha Life on a separate basis. And on top of our separate basis performance, we have financial gains coming from other sectors, including our overseas operations. So our overall strategy is to maximize the consolidated profit. So it's not a matter of increasing which sector versus other sectors, but rather try to increase the overall high of the profit.

The following question will be presented by Heewon Choi from Morgan Stanley.

I'm Choi Heewon fro Morgan Stanley. I have two quick questions. First of all, you talked about how you're working to reduce expense variance. And in your last earnings presentation conference, you mentioned that full year insurance profit -- pretax basis insurance profit for 2026 is KRW 500 billion. So I'd like to understand whether this increase in profit will mainly come from the improvement of experience variance on a full year basis. And secondly, you do have treasury shares. So I'd like to get an update on the potential timeline for the cancellation of these shares.

I'm from the business management team. Let me answer your first question. As we communicated at the previous conference call, our full year insurance profit guidance is KRW 500 billion, and we continue to maintain this as an internal target. And to achieve this target, first of all, we are already seeing a significant improvement in claims variance on a year-over-year basis, which will have a positive contribution. And at the same time, the amount of owners contract expense continues to decrease, which was actually a main factor behind the decline in the interest profit last year. So we'll be able to see an improvement in this area as well. We already talked about ways to reduce claims variance. So moving on to the expense of recognizing owners' contracts, we have taken various measures including the discontinuation of particular riders and covers that leak through owners' contracts. So overall, we continue to work to improve the profitability of our products. As a result, we are already seeing an improvement in owners contract-related trends, focusing on new business. So as this declining trend continues into the remainder of 2026, we believe that owner contract related expense will be potentially lower than that of 2025.

I'm from the corporate team. Let me answer your question on our treasury shares treatment. With the revision or amendment through the commercial law, it is mandatory for companies to cancel treasury shares. And according to the revision of the law, there is a grace period of 1 year and 6 months. So using this grace period, we are considering various options, including the cancellation of treasury shares. And when we come up with the final plan, we'll make sure to communicate that with the market.

The following question will be presented by HeeYeon Lim from Shinhan Investment & Securities.

I'm Lim Hee Yeon from Shinhan Investment & Securities. I have two questions. First question is related to new business market. And currently, there is a set of market for new policy underwriting has been slowing down. And if you can share your view on the reasons behind the slowdown in the acquisition market and for how long this trend will continue, I would appreciate it. But nevertheless, despite the contraction in the market, Hanwha Life was able to post good results, especially an increase in new business CSM. And it may be partly because of the increased new sales organization, which has led to a defensive results. But at the same time, if there are other factors that have led to positive performance on your side for new business acquisitions, please separate on them. Secondly, when we look at the slides, you have provided a slide on the ownership structure of the subsidiary and recently have increased the consolidation of noninsurance overseas subsidiaries. And of course, for our GA companies like Hanwha Life Financial Service, I can see that there is potential synergy, and there are synergies coming from your GA subsidiaries as well as other insurance subsidiaries overseas. However, when it comes to non-insurance businesses especially in other countries, there are different countries and we don't really see much of a synergy created from these subsidiaries under your umbrella. So if you can add more color on the overall blueprint and the direction of your company strategy in utilizing the subsidiaries, it will be very helpful.

I'm from the marketing enhancement team. Let me respond to your first question. As you mentioned, there has been a decline in the volume in the market, mainly because of the focus on shorter-term premium paying policies as well as intensifying competition over healthy products. However, we were able to achieve a positive improvement in the protection initially in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis. It is mainly because of the product portfolio shifts from shorter premium paying term policies to longer premium paying policies and also to sell health insurance policies with a focus on CSM multiple and profitability. And going forward, we'll continue to diversify our product portfolio, focusing on longer premium paying full life policies and health products so that we can enhance our value and deliver more value for our customers in the longer run as well as providing a stable source of income and the platform for activity for our FPs so that we can achieve mutual growth for all of the stakeholders.

I'm in charge of corporate planning. Let me respond to your second question on our overall strategy for noninsurance overseas subsidiaries. Of course, Hanwha Life is a life insurance company, but we do have general insurance, asset management and the securities and other financial services. So you can view Hanwha Life as a group with a financial business portfolio. And under this structure, we continue to look for new growth drivers. Now I'd like to talk about the implications of acquisitions in Indonesia as well as the U.S. As for Indonesia, we already have business operations for life insurance and general insurance. And in Southeast Asia, the bancassurance channel is a distinct channel through which insurance policies are distributed. Therefore, our acquisition of Nobu Bank is significant that it acts as a bancassurance channel. Also, we can utilize bank accounts as sources for us to distribute life insurance, general insurance, asset management and security services. And secondly, for our deals in the U.S., we have, under Hanwha Life, securities business and asset management business. And so our U.S. deal is in connection with these financial investment services. And also, we're looking at the increase in Korean people making investments in the U.S., and this is in line with our acquisition of Velocity. So in the short term, we are working as a bridge that connects Korean investors to U.S. investment opportunities. But in the future, we will also be able to bring U.S. investors to make investments in Korea. Thank you.

Currently there are no participants with questions. [Operator Instructions]

With no further questions, we would like conclude the earnings conference call for Hanwha Life First Quarter 2026. Thank you very much. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]