Thai Reinsurance to ride A&H losses with property, motor growth

Underwriting performance in 2025 should be stable.

Thai Reinsurance Public Company Limited (THRE) should be able to weather expected losses from its accident and health (A&H) business in 2025.

Its insurance company’s property and motor business, which make up 40% to 45% of its business, should drive growth, said Fitch Ratings in its latest rating action commentary of the company.

“Inflation in medical costs put pressure on the accident and health (A&H) business, which makes up about half of THRE's operations, raising the segment's combined ratio,” the ratings agency said in the report, where it affirmed Thai Reinsurance’s A- rating and gave it a stable outlook.

However, THRE’s losses in the A&H line should be benign in 2025 through repricing, slowing growth and industry-wide adoption of co-payments, particularly in medical expenses insurance.

Overall, THRE's underwriting performance in 2025 is expected to be stable, with the combined ratio remaining below 100%, Fitch said.

The insurer’s risky-asset ratio is expected to rise further from 42% in Q3 2024 and 33% in 2023, as THRE looks to maintain higher investment returns amidst a disinflationary environment.

“THRE suffered a foreign-exchange loss during 2024 from a US short-term treasury fund, which we expect the company to partially recover by the end of the year with the baht's depreciation,” Fitch said.