BETTER TIMES FOR NIGERIAN INSURANCE COMPANIES?

The answer to this question is not quite. That is if one cane judge with the mid-year figures submitted by six quoted insurance companies to the stock market in recent months. The interim figures were from AXA; WAPIC; UNITY KAPITAL; STACO; SOVEREIGN TRUST AND REGENCY Insurance companies.
In terms of gross income ( premium plus non operational income) recorded, three apiece reported drop and growth respectively. The highest growth in gross income. was Wapic's 16.8 per centy on 2014 half year levels; followed by AXA's 14.2 per cent then Sovereign Trust's 6.77 per cent.
Top drop in gross income was by Staco at 8.67 per cent followed closely by Unity Kapital with 6.17 per cent and Regency's marginal 0.14 per, cent decrease.
Much the same companies reported drops and increase in premium income but the situation changes when capacity to retain risk covered is considered. Here Wapic, Staco and Regency reported decrease ahead of decrease in premium income or less growth thus implying that they retained more risk insured within the period.
Not so for the other three AXA; Unity Kapital  and Sovereign. Particularly Sovereign recorded 56.1 per cent increase in reinsurance compared 6.59 per cent increase in premium income while Unity Kapital had 27.8 per cent rise in reinsurance in spite of 6.80 per cent drop in premium income.
Three of the six companies were boosted strongly within the period by increase in investment income while two in fact reported drops here while Wapic settled for marginal 0.42 per cent increase.
In the end, only Staco and Sovereign Trust reported increase in profit margin within the first half to June while AXA, Wapic; Staco and Regency closed with drops on levels achieved by same time in 2014.
This was principally because there remarkable increase in net claims paid all except Unity Kapital and Sovereign Trust while also most the them also grappled with higher operating expenses.
THUS:
* In spite of laws demanding increased local content especially in oil industry and concerted efforts to repair the image of the industry, it is not quite uhuru yet for the industry.
* However, the drive for quick and professional settlement of claims by companies seems to be paying off and should help restore confidence in the industry sooner than later.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018: TWO BLOWS TO UNITED CAPITAL PLC.

When a child who in a previous examination scored 80%, comes home with a new report in which he now scores 67.2%, the parents have a right to sit him down and ask how come. So it must be between Nigeria's United Capital Plc and its discerning shareholders since the release of the company's 2018 audited figures. In 2018, all said and done, says the annual report, United Capital ended with 67.2 % profit margin compared to 80.2% in 2017. How come? What comes across from the figures was that the company received 2 blows to the jugular in 2018: Sharp drops in Investment income and fair value gain. Investment income dropped by 10.8% to N4422.8m from N4965.2m while fair value on financial assets plunged by 79.7% to N6.173m from 2017's N30.387m. In view of both drops, the group's gross earnings grew by only 33.9% to N9259.4m despite strong growths in net trading income, and net operating income leap to N757.5m from N143.5m  Other income streams ended with single digit increase....
Read more

KENYA AUCTIONS Ksh 13.84bn Treasury Bonds.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) will from Tuesday December 18 to 27th 2018_ auction Ksh 13.84bn worth of fixed income Treasury Bonds with issue date December 17, 2018. According to official statement from the Director of Financial Markets Irene Njiru on Monday December 17, auction will continue throughout the stated period or close once the target money to be raised is reached, whichever comes first. Bid value will be paid for at most by 2pm December 31, 2018 while auction results will be made public on December 28, 2018 after the scheduled closing date. The bonds are being issued at 12.502% fixed interest at an adjusted average price of Ksh 100.468 for Ksh 100 bond. However, price payable after auction results publication will be average of successful bid prices based and allotment will be on first come first served basis. Meanwhile, the monetary operations and debt management department has released the interest payment schedule for 13 Treasury Bonds due January and February 2019. Th...
Read more

NAIROBI SE's HIGH PRICED EQUITIES.

In the wake of Nigeria's high priced quoted companies posted in this blog a while ago, Henates took a look to at Nairobi Securities Exchange June 23 official list to identify its high priced equities and the outcome was interesting too. Of the 66 companies quoted on the market by June 23, 15 or 22.7% were valued averagely at above 30 times nominal value. A word of caution though: There are two clear differences between the Nigerian stock market list and that of Nairobi: In the Nigerian one most listed companies have par or nominal value of N0.50 as is there is an implied agreement on this. On the other hand, at Nairobi most of the equities do not share common par value, they differ greatly. Then another thing, Nigerian equities are not valued below par, Nairobi ones can and many are so valued. Of the top 15 high priced equities at the Nairobi market, Safaricom topped with because by June 23, at 23.25 Ksh average price, it was valued 465 times its nominal value of just 0.0...
Read more