OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings says in a new report that Japanese non-life insurers are likely to continue to look for M&A opportunities overseas to improve returns from the capital that will be released by continued reduction of their equity crossholdings.

The overseas businesses of the three major Japanese non-life groups demonstrated strong growth in the financial year ending March 2015 (FYE15), contributing to the overall earnings for the respective groups. Overseas businesses are a key growth driver for the Japanese non-life groups, while appropriate risk management remains important, says Fitch.

Underwriting profit of their domestic non-life business also jumped in FYE15, driven by the premium growth and the absence of catastrophic-loss events. That said, catastrophe exposures and domestic equity exposures continue to cause volatility in non-life insurers' operating performance.

The dashboard includes Fitch's latest update on Japanese non-life insurers' key financial data and ratios in 2015, including improvement in underwriting earnings and core capital.