(LEAD) Samsung Life Insurance Q1 net more than quadruples

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SEOUL, May 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top life insurer Samsung Life Insurance Co. said Friday its first-quarter earnings more than quadrupled from a year ago due largely to one-off factors.

Consolidated net profit came to 1.09 trillion won (US$960 million) in the January-March period, up 373.2 percent from a year earlier, Samsung Life Insurance said in a regulatory filing.

Revenue fell 3.5 percent to slightly over 10 trillion won, while operating profit rocketed 256.2 percent to 1.33 trillion won.

Samsung Life Insurance attributed the spike in the first-quarter bottom line to special dividends from Samsung Electronics Co. and reversal of variable insurance allowance thanks to a booming stock market.

Samsung Life Insurance is the largest shareholder in Samsung Electronics Co., the flagship of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group., with 8.17 percent.

As of end-March, Samsung Life Insurance had 334.6 trillion won in total assets, with its risk-based capital (RBC) ratio reaching 332 percent.

The company's RBC ration was far higher than the average 297.3 percent for local life insurers. A key yardstick of financial stability, the RBC ratio -- the actual solvency capital divided by the minimum solvency capital required -- measures an insurer's ability to absorb losses and pay insurance money to policyholders.

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