The world economy, which has contracted at an unprecedented rate under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that began in late 2019, has heaved a sigh of relief in 2021 and is beginning to normalize and recover

Following the mitigation COVID-19 measures and the lifting of lockdowns, economic activity around the world revived, and support packages and expansion policies of states raised demand.

Due to the increase in demand, the volume of world trade, which had fallen to USD 17 trillion in 2020, has risen to USD 20 trillion, an increase of 18% in value and 10.8% in amount. Along with these positive developments, the global economy is expected to grow dramatically at a rate of 5.9%, according to the World Economic Outlook Report issued by the IMF in January 2022. The expected growth in 2021 is 5.6% in the USA, 8.1% in China, and 5.2% in the Eurozone. Developed and developing countries are forecast to grow by 5.0% and 6.5%, respectively, over the same period.

Global inflation increased rapidly for several reasons, including the supply and demand gap associated with accelerated growth in 2021, increases in energy and food prices, setbacks in the global supply chain, and escalating transportation costs, all of which led to vulnerabilities in the world’s economies. Reaching equilibrium between supply and demand is expected to slow the pace of growth in 2022. Also, economic growth and the normalization process are expected to continue

Türkiye Sigorta covers our country’s investments in strategic areas and is aware of its responsibility toward our country and people. Amasra-1 well in the Sakarya gas field was insured by our company in 2021.

Türkiye’s record growth

Türkiye, one of the few countries that managed to grow during the 2020 pandemic, saw record growth in 2021. The Turkish economy, which grew by 7.3%, 21.9%, 7.5%, and 9.1% in each quarter, reached a high growth rate of 11.0% at the end of 2021.

In 2021, exports drove growth, breaking a record of USD 225 billion. The foreign trade deficit narrowed by 7.5% to USD 46.1 billion, and the unemployment rate declined.

Following the exchange rate movements in the last quarter of the year and the rising inflation observed in parallel, exchange rates were balanced by the end of the year thanks to the measures announced by our president. The positive effect of these measures led us to expect falling inflation in 2022.

Aiming to gain recognition as a technology company, Türkiye Sigorta will accelerate the digitization of sales channels and operational processes in 2022.

Integration completed through a devoted process

Türkiye’s new insurance giant, Türkiye Sigorta, formed by the merger of insurance companies in 2020, has had a successful year, like its namesake Türkiye.

Following the merger of Ziraat Sigorta and Halk Sigorta to form Güneş Sigorta under the title of Türkiye Sigorta and the merger of Ziraat Emeklilik and Halk Emeklilik to form Vakıf Emeklilik under the title of Türkiye Hayat Emeklilik, Türkiye Sigorta completed its integration and reorganization processes in 2021. We continued to provide our customers with the quality and uninterrupted service they deserve by engaging with all employees and stakeholders, while the changes in organizational structure and system-related work were largely completed. Product deduplication, the ability to track reports from a single system, and independence from previous systems can be listed as key developments in 2021.

Digitalization journey gained momentum

On this continuum, we have also made great strides in digitization, which has come to the forefront, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. In an environment where consumers began to use predominantly digital channels due to the pandemic, transforming into a digital enterprise proved to be a necessity for companies regardless of their industry. Aiming to be a leading and pioneering company, Türkiye Sigorta accelerated the pace of its digitization, completed its infrastructure activities in 2021 to ensure a full transition to platform-based business models in 2022, and diversified its structure to embrace all stakeholders.

While performing these activities, we continue to add value to our country and economy with the strength we draw from the merger and the responsibility conferred by our name.

According to 2021 data, our company ended the year as the market leader with a premium production of TL 11,750 million and a market share of 13.42% in the non-life insurance industry. Türkiye Sigorta leads the industry with the following figures: premium production of TL 2,221 million and a market share of 15.81% in the fire and natural disasters branch; premium production of TL 582.1 million and a market share of 23.82% in the accident branch; premium production of TL 245.4 million and a market share of 50.18% in the aircraft liability branch; and premium production of TL 219.5 million and a market share of 46.80% in the aircraft branch. In state-subsidized agricultural insurance, the company is the industry leader, with a market share of 59.82% and premium production of TL 3,451 million, reaching a scale almost four times that of its nearest competitor.

Türkiye Sigorta’s key advantages that differentiate it from its competitors are its robust financial structure, agency network that provides access to every region through a large banking distribution channel, broad product range that meets needs, end-to-end process optimization through digitization activities, cost reduction through economies of scale, and the ability to offer unprecedented products achieved by increasing operational productivity.

GDrawing its strength from its name, Türkiye Sigorta takes our country’s investments in strategic fields under coverage with the awareness of its responsibility toward our country and people. In this sense, our Company insured Amasra-1 Well in Sakarya Gas Field, unveiled to have natural gas of 135 billion cubic meters in 2021.

Mark of Türkiye Sigorta on strategic investments

Türkiye Sigorta continues to secure our country’s investment in strategic areas through coverage of our first national communications satellites, Türksat 5A and 6A. Our company, which had already insured Türksat 3A, Türksat 4A, and Türksat 4B, has taken out a policy to cover the in-orbit operations of Türksat 5A and a policy to cover the pre-launch operational risks of Türksat 6A.

Investments in the national car, TOGG, and TPAO’s real estate and drilling vessels are also covered by Türkiye Sigorta. In addition to these strategic investments, Türkiye Sigorta plays an important role in the renewable energy coverage. The number of renewable energy policies in the company’s portfolio is increasing day by day.

With the responsibility conferred by its name, Türkiye Sigorta considers it its supreme duty to stand by the Turkish people at all times. The company has responded without any delay to the fires and floods that occurred in our country in 2021, and the financial and emotional challenges of the disaster victims have been eliminated as soon as possible.

However, Türkiye Sigorta aims to always stand by its customers, no matter if they are going through hard times. Türkiye Sigorta intends to transpose the “after” in the insurance experience with the “before” and ensure that insurance services are not remembered only when we experience an adverse condition but are made a part of our life. As a result of such a perspective, which can be expressed with the discourse “insurance as a service,” assistance services have been added to the specific products to ensure that our company stands by policyholders even when there is no damage.

Objective of sustainable leadership

Türkiye Sigorta is an industry leader, having achieved production and profitability targets in a competitive industry. With its experienced workforce, high capacity, business writing capability, and the synergies resulting from the merger, the company aims to transform this success in a sustainable leadership position in the coming years.

Türkiye Sigorta is aware of the need to have a technological infrastructure equal to that of a technology company to achieve the objective of sustainable leadership. With the goal of being recognized as a technology company in the coming periods, the company will accelerate the digitization of its sales channels and operational processes in 2022.

Türkiye Sigorta invests ceaselessly in its employees, just as it invests in technology. Training courses are regularly organized to improve employees’ professional knowledge and skills. The Türkiye Sigorta Academy, established under the umbrella of Türkiye Sigorta to meet the educational and developmental needs of employees, continues to provide uninterrupted training activities and enhance the value of the company with a human-centric view, innovative content, and a value-added approach for all stakeholders.

We took pride in our awards

Türkiye Sigorta crowned its success with the awards it received. Türkiye Sigorta’s 2020 annual reports were awarded numerous awards in the most prestigious competitions in the business world. The awards granted to us by reputable international organizations such as Vision Awards, ARC Awards, Stevie Awards, and IADA encourage us in our efforts to provide services of high quality. The silver prize in the category of “Social Responsibility” was granted to the project “Let’s Make the Children Read as We Read, Engaging Them in Books” implemented by Türkiye Sigorta at the PSM Awards 2021, which fills us with pride and joy.

In 2022, we will continue to ideally meet the needs of our stakeholders and develop products and practices that meet the changing demands of our customers and facilitate their experiences. As a pioneering insurance company in the field of sustainability, we aim to support the process of raising awareness by positively influencing decision-makers and the industry. Given the global risks and our responsibility to stakeholders, we have made the decision to launch sustainability activities for our company to protect the future that we will leave as a legacy to the next generations.

We are committed to integrating sustainability into our insurance activities and business models, and to making our sustainability declaration of compliance by setting our future objectives.

As we move toward achieving these objectives, we rely on the company’s employees, who work enthusiastically and devotedly with a sense of “unity” as well as on the channel of agencies, brokers, and bancassurances—our revolving supporters now and in the future. I am grateful to our stakeholders for guiding us on our shared journey toward greater objectives.

Yours respectfully,

Aziz Murat Uluğ
Chairman of the Board

We consolidated our leading position while attaining our objectives

We successfully completed merger activities on our path to becoming Türkiye’s insurance company and taking a pioneering role in redefining the insurance business. We have maintained our leadership in the Turkish insurance industry with the power of unity as a result of the integration and reorganization efforts in 2021.

Our company, which has made its mission to bring insurance services to a wider audience in Türkiye, has completed an unprecedented merger in record time. Moreover, it has proven to deliver on all the promises it has made, with successes in corporate and financial performance in only its first year.

High growth rates in 2021

The synergy effects we created with the merger had a positive impact on premium production in 2021. Our company’s premium production rose by 32% in 2021 compared to the previous year, reaching TL 11,750 million. We achieved growth in the banking, agency, and brokerage channels, which was above the industry level, while we maintained our leadership position in TCIP, fire, and natural disasters, personal accident, aircraft, aircraft liability, and agriculture branches.

Our balanced channel and product portfolio and strong financial structure have played a major role in this success. A balanced portfolio was one of the key factors that lead to a strong balance sheet.

In this period in which customer expectations have evolved rapidly and the meaning of competition has altered, we need to focus on not only products, but also the solutions that will raise the loyalty of our customers and channels to embody the insurance.

Strong financial outcomes despite the adverse developments affecting the industry

2021 was a year of great change in the economy and the insurance industry. Our country faced unprecedented natural disasters, such as fires and floods. Exchange rate fluctuations and the sharp rise in inflation in the last quarter of the year can be mentioned as other developments that have had a negative impact on the industry.

On the other hand, an increase in damage frequency was observed in the insurance industry after the pandemic, leading to an escalation in the loss/premium ratios. The cost of spare parts increased significantly due to exchange rate fluctuations. Also, traffic insurance regulations and the increase in the minimum wage forced companies to make rapid adjustments. At Türkiye Sigorta, we took immediate action to preserve our profitability in the face of these developments.

Despite the developments summarized above, we left behind a year in which we reinforced our leadership with the actions we took on production and profitability. In 2021, our company achieved a net profit of TL 1,058 million and a technical profit of TL 1,297 million.

We should embody the insurance and focus on solutions rather than products…

At Türkiye Sigorta, we aim to understand the rapidly changing expectations and demands of our policyholders and maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction as usual to make this success sustainable for the coming periods and by meeting their demands in the most efficient and fastest way with innovative products and services.

We believe it is important to use technology to provide our customers, as well as our agencies, bank branches, and other sales channels, with differentiated experiences that are customized to their unique needs. To achieve this, we should change the way we look at the data and use data analytics effectively.

In this period in which customer expectations have rapidly evolved and the meaning of competition has changed, we need to focus not only on products but also on solutions that increase customer and channel loyalty to embody insurance.

We do not have the chance to live in a world where we only help our customers in cases of production and damage. By building meaningful interactions with our customers, it is possible to become more familiar with them. Therefore, to create value for our customers, we are working to switch to platform-based business models that focus on insurance through ecosystem collaboration. By obtaining more data, we will be able to offer our customers customized solutions instead of products.

Digital transformation and platformbased business model

At Türkiye Sigorta, we will continue with digital transformation activities in areas where we provide services to both our customers and distribution channels to embody insurance and offer customized solutions to our customers.

With this understanding, we will put the digital platform into use for our customers in 2022. We will offer many proactive insurance services and basic insurance services to our customers, and we will do our best to assist our customers through this digital platform at every moment.

We also aim to deliver the multi-channel experience at the highest level, thanks to the connected structure that allows us to monitor a customer’s journey in each channel, coordinate interactions, and take automated actions based on incidents through the common layer that supports our customer, sales, and call center platforms.

Globalization target

The transition to a platform-based business model brings the ability to operate without physically existing in other countries as well. Under the leadership of our principal shareholder, Turkey Wealth Fund, we aim to commence our operations, especially in the countries that involve Türkiye’s interests, with different methods, such as directly starting operations or acquisitions, as well as platform based business models.

All our stakeholders, particularly our experienced and dynamic employees, will be our greatest assurance in reaching these ambitious goals. I would like to thank our stakeholders and our valued colleagues who have gone a long way along this path we have walked together.

Atilla Benli
Vice Chairman and CEO