BKIC approves 15pc cash dividend

The General Assembly of Bahrain Kuwait Insurance Company (BKIC) yesterday approved a cash dividend distribution of 15 per cent (BD 2,143,847) from the paid-up capital. Shareholders approved the board’s recommendation during an Annual General Meeting for the financial year 2018 held at the company’s head office in Seef District.

“The recommendation to distribute a cash dividend of 15 per cent of the paid-up capital, excludes treasury shares,” the board said noting that the company doubled its paid-up capital in 2018 through the distribution of 100pc bonus shares to increase its paid-up capital to BD 14.3 million. The board further noted that the company’s end of the year net profit attributable to the shareholders increased by 22pc, from BD2.6m in 2017 to BD3.2m in 2018.

The Return on Equity (ROE) recorded was 8.8pc compared to 7.5pc in 2017. Earnings per share (EPS) at the end of the year 2018 stood at 22 fils (Paid up capital BD 14.3m) compared with 36 fils (Paid up Capital BD 7.2m) in 2017.

Stake in Takaful

Chairman Murad Ali Murad told shareholders that the company had an impressive performance and continues to maintain its leading position in the insurance market in Bahrain, despite economic challenges faced by the country, especially in the insurance industry last year. The company, the Chairman said, had increased its stake in Takaful International through subscription to the rights issue and by acquiring an additional stake to reach 81.94pc.

“Since the markets in which we operate are small and limited in scope for organic growth, we believe that strategic investments like merger or acquisition will help us to maximise investment income and cost saving,” Murad Ali Murad said. On credit rating, Murad stated that the international rating agency A.M. Best has affirmed the credit rating of the company “A- with stable outlook” after reviewing the company’s performance in 2018.  Ebrahim Alrayes – the CEO said that the company’s technical profits for the year 2018 were good.

He indicated that the company achieved underwriting profits of BD 1.9m during the year 2018, compared to BD 1.2m last year, recording an increase of 66pc. “The company also achieved a gross premium revenue of BD 81.6m, compared to BD 59.5m in the previous year, recording a significant growth of 37pc. The investment net income increased by 26pc, from BD 1.6m in 2017 to BD 2m in the year 2018,” he said. Alrayes mentioned that the net claims increased by 31pc from BD 18.5m in 2017 to BD 24.4m in 2018.

Despite this increase, there was no change in loss ratio from the previous year which remained at 76.8pc at the end of the year. Also, based on the report of the external actuary, additional IBNR provisions amounting to BD 564,000 was made to strengthen the technical reserves which stood at BD 29.5m compared to BD 26.5m in the previous year.

On business development, Alrayes said that the company recruited an officer in the position of Assistant Chief Executive Officer for Support and Development to implement the state of the art information technology and digital solutions within the company.

“gig go”

Alrayes added that among the most important projects that have been completed during the year 2018 was the launch of the application of “gig go” which is a smart and easy-to-use mobile application that enables customers to buy personal insurance products, renew policies and register their claims online using their mobile phones and other smart devices. 

Cloud solution

Alrayes also mentioned that in accordance with the requirements of the Central Bank of Bahrain, the company is gradually moving to the Cloud Solution using Amazon web services which will save cost on IT infrastructure.