Catastrophe, large losses earn Africa Re 11.26 % in Q3

Despite the huge losses and catastrophe that hit the insurance sector, African Reinsurance Corporation’s premium income for the 3^rd quarter 2018 represents 11.65 per cent increase. The Corporation’s premium income in the quarter under review recorded $577.41 million in 2018 from $ 517.15 million in the same quarter of the previous year. Commenting on the Corporation’s performance at the end of the third quarter, the Group Managing Director, Mr Corneille Karekezi said, “The unprecedented catastrophe and large losses experienced last year, translated into higher incurred losses after refining the inventory and level during the first three quarters of 2018.

Karekezi said, “Once again, this demonstrates the need for reinsurance to support communities and business assets. Africa Re is proud of its timely support to insurers and affected customers. Despite such losses, the Corporation’s outlook for the year end remains positive.” Save for any large claim for the remainder of the year, we foresee an overall reduced, but still good, underwriting profit and a commendable investment performance for 2018, he added. He expressed the contribution of its expansion, “This strong performance was driven by new businesses in West and Southern Africa as well as African currencies that were relatively stable against the US dollar.

“However, the performance of the period was impacted by run-off of the 2017 catastrophe claims in South Africa and large property and energy losses in many of the Corporation’s  markets namely: Central Africa, West Africa, South Africa and the Middle-East, he said”. This situation to an underwriting loss of US$ 20.89 million during the period under review, an improvement from last year’s underwriting loss of US$ 24.48 million. Investment income stood at US$23.52 million at the end of the third quarter of 2018, against US$ 41.38 million in the corresponding period of the previous year, representing a 43% drop.