Asia Insurance (Cambodia) Plc on Friday paid US$1.1 million to a garment manufacturer after a fire destroyed a company warehouse in late March last year.

A River Rich Textile warehouse, holding the company’s products in Kandal province, burned down after an electrical circuit caused a fire, the company said during a press conference on Friday.

The total value of the building and the products it held was more than $2 million, factory general manager Sung Chung Man said.

“It is the first time this happened to us since we started running our business about 10 years ago,” he said.

He chose Asia Insurance to protect his business because there were only a few companies offering commercial insurance when he started operations, Sung Chung Man said, but that the company had “served us good” since then.

Premium revenues at the Cambodia’s six insurance firms rose by 19 per cent year-on-year in 2011, while total claims rose by 178 per cent, according to official data from General Insurance Association of Cambodia (GIAC).

Total premium revenue hit $29.7 million in 2011.

Total claims were $33.5 million.

Cambodian law requires all six of the country’s insurance companies to cooperate with foreign re-insuring partners to avoid a crash in the Kingdom’s fledgling insurance market.

Chhay Ratanak, chairman of GIAC, had told the Post that the local firm would pay only $1 million.

The remainder would be covered by foreign reinsurers.

A fire at June Textile factory in March 2011 caused many millions of dollars in damage, but the local insurance firm would pay out $16 million.

Vice chairman of Asia Insurance Van Sou Ieng said the company has been cooperating with many foreign re-insurers, however, he declined to reveal their names.

Van Sou Ieng is also the president of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia.

To contact the reporter on this story: May Kunmakara at [email protected]