The Law Union & Rock Insurance Plc ended the 2016 financial year with N3.935 billion gross premium, up from N3.858 billion.
The company grew its profit before tax (PBT) by 101 per cent, from N328 million in 2015 to N658 million in 2016, while total assets rose from N8.580 billion while shareholders’ funds grew by 13.03 per cent from N4.45 billion to N5.039 billion.
Addressing the shareholders at the 48th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company in Lagos, the Chairman of Law Union & Rock Insurance, Mr. Remi Babalola, said the company recorded marginal increase its top-line and significant growth in its bottom-line.
Babalola said: “If you look at the performance of the company in 2016, you will realise that the company is doing better every year. Since 2012 we have been doing better than other years. The company had a very good brand, but faced some challenge which made things not go very well for them. We were among the topmost insurance companies in the country if you trace through history.
By the time we came into the company, it was struggling, therefore what we did was to change the management, the board, and improve the policies. Also, we put good risk management practices. We then came up with a corporate plan and good strategy and we allowed the management to implement that strategy.”
He said the company has brought in a foreign investor as part of the shareholders, disclosing that the company did a private placement last year which was successful and the foreign investor has put money into the company.
“We are looking for leverage in the areas where we are going to bring in technology to enhance product and diversify the company,” he said.
Speaking on the insurance industry, he said insurance business in Nigeria has not started because when you compare the contribution of the insurance sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) it is very low.
“When we compare with Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, while we have zero per cent in terms of GDP, they have above three per cent. There is tremendous opportunity in the insurance business, but it needs the right risk management, appropriate capital, right technology and well-motivated workforce. These are what the Law Union and Rock has right now,” he added.
According to Babalola, upon the approval of the shareholders of the company to raise additional capital by way of private placement requisite regulatory approvals were obtained for the issue.
He added that consequent upon a conditional approval issued by the National Insurance Commission (NIC) that the investor’s post-placement position should not exceed 20 per cent of the company’s equity, the placement subscribed was 83.3 per cent, thereby bringing the total shares subscribed to the 859 million ordinary shares.
Source:© Copyright Thisday Online
Leave a Reply