South Korea’s mid-sized non-life insurer DB Insurance Co. sustained generous cash dividend to alleviate shareholders’ concern about the dent on the income statement from reduced profitability in the car insurance business.

DB Insurance in a regulatory filing on Thursday said its operating profit fell 34.7 percent to 94.5 billion won ($84.1 million) in the fourth quarter ended December last year from a year ago period. Revenue rose 2.0 percent year on year to 3.2 trillion won. Net profit sank 34.9 percent to 63.0 billion won over the same period. The results were slightly above market expectation.

For full 2018, its operating profit dropped 13.2 percent on year to 745.9 billion won while revenue gained 0.7 percent to 12.4 trillion won. Net profit dipped 17.3 percent to 514.7 billion won in the cited period.

The deterioration in the bottom line stemmed from the rise in car insurance loss ratio, which refers to the percentage of total claims paid by an insurer in relation to total premium earned. The company recently raised car insurance premium by 3.5 percent on average to lessen the loss.

In a separate filing, the company said it will pay a cash dividend of 2,000 won per common share, above the industry average. The total year-end dividend payout will be 126.5 billion won. On Thursday, shares of DB Insurance closed 1.37 percent lower at 72,100 won.

Along with relatively generous shareholder policy, DB Insurance has increased social contribution. It signed an agreement with the Korea Productivity Center on launching a corporate social responsibility program together to unearth and nurture promising startups.

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