Insurance companies in South Korea posted a slight growth in their net profit in the first six months of the year from a year earlier but solely on a rise in the income of non-life insurers, data showed Monday. The combined net income of 22 life insurers and 31 non-life insurance companies here came to 9.36 trillion won (US$7 billion) in the first half, up 2.8 percent from the same period last year, according to preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The 22 life insurance firms posted a combined net profit of 3.59 trillion won in the January-June period, down 9.4 percent from a year earlier, while the non-life insurance firms' combined net profit spiked 12.2 percent on-year to 5.77 trillion won over the cited period. The financial regulator said the decline in the combined net of life insurers largely stemmed from a sharp drop in their investment returns, which plummeted over 24 percent on-year from 2.3 trillion won to 1.75 trillion won over the period. Their combined net profit f rom insurance business alone gained 5.4 percent on-year to 2.93 trillion won, according to the FSS. The insurance companies' premium income came to 115.7 trillion won in the first half, up 3.9 percent from a year earlier. Their return on assets reached 1.52 percent, down 0.04 percentage point on-year, but their return on equity gained 0.72 percentage point to 11.79 percent. Their total assets had stood at 1,240.8 trillion won as of end-June, up 1.3 percent from six months earlier, while their total liabilities gained 3.0 percent to 1,089.6 trillion won over the period. Source: Yonhap News Agency