Insurers target foreign operations’ sell-off in Q1 2020

In a quest to meet the nation’s insurance industry recapitalisation requirements, operators of the Capital Express Holdings has revealed plans to sell off African operations with the exception of the Kenyan subsidiary.

The Managing Director of the group, Yinka Obalade, who spoke to The Guardian at the weekend, said the idea is to strengthen Nigerian operations spanning insurance, asset management, investment banking, commodity trading, trusteeship and franchising.Obalade stressed that the sales of overseas assets is expected to be concluded by the first quarter of 2020.

According to him, the board has granted approval to utilise the proceeds in line with the strategic goals of the organisation. The goals include the recapitalization of its life Insurance operations in Nigeria through the acquisitions of firms that will further increase the capacity of the company to meet the recapitalisation requirement as directed by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

The acquisition will be an addition to the funds which the Holding Company is injecting in the first instance into the company.He reiterated that its other areas of business like asset management, investment, banking, trusteeship, among others, would also be beneficiaries of the funds towards repositioning the entire brand for greater competitiveness in all its areas of operations.

The GMD maintained that the sales process of some of the companies are already concluded while others are being finalised to ensure they that the deadline of 1st quarter 2020 is met.He said that the Board discussed other options before arriving at the conclusion to sell its overseas operations.