KUALA LUMPUR: Commerce Takaful Bhd is targeting total gross contributions of RM515mil this year, said chief executive officer Zainudin Ishak. 
“More than half the target will be derived from our single premium investment-linked product, which will be launched in June,” he said. 
Zainudin said this after the company performed its zakat payment for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2006 (FY06) to Pusat Pungutan Zakat Wilayah Persekutuan yesterday. 
He said the target was a shared key performance indicator with CIMB Bank Bhd, which would also offer the new product.  
“We will achieve it by leveraging on CIMB's infrastructure. This will help us contain unit costs while we focus on sales,” he said.  
A wholly-owned subsidiary of Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd (BCHB), Commerce Takaful plans to launch more products in the second half of the year. 
It also plans this year to double customer base from 100,000 now.  
Zainudin said Commerce Takaful had established a strong foundation in its first year of operations and this would help it grow its clientele base. 
“We need to work harder to penetrate the non-Muslim segment,” he said, adding that the market was still dominated by conventional insurance products. 
Commerce Takaful believes it is the first takaful company in Malaysia to record profit in the first year of operations.  
For FY06, the company posted net profit of RM5.2mil on gross contributions of RM68.7mil.