- Continental Re’s Profit Rose by 22% in 2018
Continental Reinsurance Plc said its pre-tax profit rose by 22 per cent in the 2018 financial year.
In a statement on Thursday, the company said its pre-tax profit rose to N4.36bn in 2018, from N3.57bn in 2017, while investment income grew by 44 per cent to N5.36bn.
The statement said its gross premium income increased by 15 per cent to N34.19bn, while underwriting profit stood at N1.18bn.
Given the potential cyclicality of reinsurance underwriting business, it stated that the composition and structure of earnings reflected the benefits of the group’s geographically diversified operations.
It added that these gave it flexibility in generation of topline, enabling it to offset the impact of localised adverse claims experience with better quality premiums from other regions,broad asset mix and investment management prowess that smoothened the volatility of underwriting earnings.
The Group Managing Director, Dr Femi Oyetunji, stated, “Market and business-cycle insight are key. It is about deploying the right strategy and having the right operational balance. We have resources with deep local knowledge of the diverse environmental dynamics across Africa which marry their insights with strong technical capabilities to achieve sustainable positive outcomes in our underwriting and asset management activities.
“I must say that our group has once again shown resilience with our teams optimising production and maximising return on investments.”
According to the statement, the group’s topline growth was driven by its deepening pan-African presence.
From a segment perspective, it stated, Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, Central Africa and Francophone Western Africa grew at double-digit rates of 48 per cent, 25 per cent, 24 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, while Northern Africa and Anglophone Western Africa grew by six per cent and four per cent respectively.
The company said product mix remained stable with fire and engineering accounting for 54 per cent, followed by general accident at 16 per cent, life at 12 per cent, energy at eight per cent, marine at seven per cent, and liability accounting for five per cent of the gross written premium.
“Going forward, the work of orchestrating the strengthening of our regional operations persists with a focus on continuous renewal of our talent base, our solutions offering, our operating model, our core processes and the technology we deploy, in order to embed the assimilation of our brand and our distinctive value proposition into the evolving, and increasingly sophisticated African market,” Oyetunji added.
