SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Yonhap) -- Insurance companies in South Korea posted 13 percent growth in their net profit in the first six months of the year from a year earlier on the back of increased investment returns, data showed Thursday.

The combined net income of 22 life insurers and 30 non-life insurance companies here came to 9.01 trillion won (US$6.5 billion) in the January-June period, up 1.04 trillion won 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 3.93 trillion won in the January-June period, up 17.7 percent from a year earlier, while the non-life insurance firms' combined net profit spiked 9.6 percent on-year to 5.09 trillion won over the cited period.

The financial watchdog said the rise in the combined net of life insurers largely stemmed from increased investment returns.

The insurance companies' premium income came to 134.93 trillion won in the first half, up 8.5 percent from a year earlier.

Their return on assets reached 1.28 percent, up 0.04 percentage point on-year, but their return on equity fell 2.75 percentage points to 8.52 percent.

Their total assets had stood at 1,467.9 trillion won as of end-June, up 9.2 percent from six months earlier, while their total liabilities gained 3.2 percent to 1,213.3 trillion won over the period.

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