Samsung Life Insurance Co., South Korea's top life insurer, said Thursday that its earnings more than doubled in fiscal 2010 from a year earlier thanks to investment gains from its securities holdings.

   Net income came to 1.93 trillion won ($1.8 billion) during the fiscal year that ended on March 31, compared with 906.1 billion won a year earlier, Samsung Life said in a regulatory filing.

   Samsung Life became the first local life insurance company to register an annual net profit of more than 1 trillion won.

   Revenue edged up 1.9 percent on-year to 26.18 trillion won with operating profit skyrocketing to 1.95 trillion won from 848.75 billion won a year earlier, said the company, which controls a 30 percent share of the local life insurance market. 

   "The higher bottom line is attributable to massive one-off gains from securities investments, but our profits from insurance operations remained almost unchanged in comparison with a year ago," the life insurer said.

   The life insurer gained 440 billion won after cutting loan-loss reserves and earned another 470 billion won from sales of some of its securities holdings due to accounting reasons, the company said.

   As of the end of March, Samsung Life's total assets amounted to 146.34 trillion won, up from 133.05 trillion won a year earlier, it added.

   The insurer also said it decided to pay out a total of 400 billion won, or 2,000 won per share, in yearly dividends to shareholders.

   Lee Kun-hee, the biggest shareholder of Samsung Life and chairman of South Korean tech behemoth Samsung Electronics Co., will receive 83 billion won in dividends, it added.