The insurance arm of Dutch financial services group ING is enjoying a stellar year in Hong Kong, generating new premium income of nearly HK$922 million in the first six months of the year alone - a 106 per cent increase over the same period last year.
For 40-year-old Wim Hekstra, joint co-head of ING Insurance and Pensions in Hong Kong and Macau, making the transfer from brewer to bank has clearly proved rewarding.
Before his move to ING in 2007 as general manager, strategic partnerships and business development, he was responsible for the Hong Kong and Macau operations of Dutch brewer Heineken. He was promoted to his current role in May this year.
ING Insurance and Pensions, which sells life and general insurance as well as pension and financial management products, has 1,700 agents in Hong Kong and Macau and four main banking partners through which it sells its policies. In the first 10 months of this year, said Hekstra, the business recorded an 85 per cent increase in new premiums.
'Some may say the beer business sounds like more fun than insurance. But the insurance industry is very dynamic, with lots of challenges and changes,' Hekstra said. 'I joined ING because I had the opportunity to do something new, which also fitted in well with my financial background and study. So it was not an unnatural move for me.'
Hekstra was born in the Netherlands but spent most of his childhood outside the country because his father, an agricultural engineer, worked on water management projects in various countries.