Continental Re records N2.92b PBT last year

Continental Reinsurance Plc’s profit before tax rose by 83.61 per cent from N1.59 billion in 2014 to N2.92 billion in 2015 financial period.

The firm’s gross premium income rose by 22.19 per cent to N19.7bn in 2015 from N16.4bn in 2014 and the group turned in a year of a strong underwriting performance and overall profitability.

Group Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Femi Oyetunji, said in 2015, Continental Reinsurance showed resilience in an unfavorable environment leading to maintenance of its track record of profitability in both underwriting and investment activities.

He said, “We were able to attain our performance targets. Strategically, our pan-African geographic diversity helped us to absorb the shocks emanating from the array of challenges that confronted us from the external environment such as ‘tanking’ commodity prices, currency volatility and mounting competition.”

It stated that the company’s geographic expansion and broad product line mix gives it a diversified portfolio that has progressively positioned it to straddle local and regional market cycles and, its consistent positive underwriting results reflect effective countering of concentration risk and short-term market uncertainties.

The good underwriting performance in 2015 can also be attributed to a benign claims experience.

Continental Re’s profit after tax rose by 150 per cent to N2.14 billion in 2015 from N856 million in 2014, while its investment and other income rose by 31.7 per cent to N1.88 billion in 2015, from N1.43 billion in 2014.

Its total asset rose by 5.18 per cent to N29.67 billion in 2015 from N28.21 billion, while shareholders’ fund rose by 5.15 per cent to N15.54 billion from N14.78 billion in the period under review.

Continental Reinsurance currently operates from six strategic locations across the continent through a combination of regional and subsidiary offices including Tunis, Gaborone, Nairobi and Douala.

In 2015, the Lagos business constituted 54 per cent of the total non-life business down from 60 per cent in 2014 reflecting ongoing success in the strategy to de-risk the business by pursuing growth in new territories thereby reducing concentration in the Nigerian market.