![The Meritz Financial Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. [Meritz Financial Group]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/08/12/news-p.v1.20250813.51891ea28624462eaeab6104f1759c54_P1.jpg)
Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance reported Wednesday that its net profit for the period on a separate basis reached 1.02 trillion won ($724 million) in the first half of this year, up 3.8 percent from the same period last year. Second-quarter net profit rose 6.4 percent to 558.3 billion won.
First-half sales climbed 8 percent to 6.71 trillion won, while operating profit grew 5.4 percent to 1.4 trillion won. Insurance profit came in at 697.5 billion won for the period, with investment profit reaching 703.1 billion won — the latter edging out insurance profit and tilting the earnings mix toward asset management.
The investment yield on asset management rose to 6 percent, up 0.6 percentage points from the end of the first quarter. A return to profitability in auto insurance also contributed to the improvement: first-half auto insurance profit came in at 500 million won, reversing a loss of 7.5 billion won a year earlier, while the second quarter alone generated a profit of 6.9 billion won.
In its core business, long-term insurance continued to grow. New long-term protection contracts in the second quarter totaled 36.5 billion won on a monthly premium equivalent basis, up 21 percent from a year earlier, with personal insurance accounting for 36 billion won of that figure. On a cumulative first-half basis, new contracts reached 71.2 billion won, a 20.7 percent increase. The contractual service margin stood at 12.12 trillion won as of end-June, up 1.02 trillion won from the end of last year. The 13th-month policy retention rate was 84.2 percent, and the 25th-month rate was 66 percent.
The provisional Korea Insurance Capital Standard ratio — the key solvency indicator — stood at 231 percent, down 9.6 percentage points from 240.6 percent at the end of the first quarter, though the company said it remained among the highest in the industry.
"These results reflect sales growth in long-term personal insurance and general insurance, a turnaround to profitability in auto insurance, and solid investment returns," a company official said.
Meanwhile, parent company Meritz Financial Group posted consolidated net profit for the period of 1.47 trillion won for the first half, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier, with second-quarter net profit reaching 791.4 billion won. Total assets grew 9.7 percent from the end of last year to 148.55 trillion won, and return on equity stood at 26.8 percent.
psj@heraldcorp.com
