The Arab Insurance Group (ARIG) has reported a third consecutive quarter of positive performance, with a net profit of $6.9 million for the nine months ending on September 30, 2003.
ARIG's third quarter results have reinforced expectations that the group will close the year with a net profit, as against losses of $36.8 million for 2002.
The company said that its reinsurance operations continued to benefit from hard market conditions on the one hand, and the reduction of capacity caused by the withdrawal of some traditional European re-insurers from certain lines of business or geographical markets in the Middle East and North Africa, on the other.
These favorable market conditions have enabled the group's reinsurance arm to secure gross premiums of $96.4 million for the first nine months of 2003, despite the loss of business from certain discontinued lines of business and from the rating-driven markets in the Far East.
The reinsurance operations reported a net profit of $1.2 million for the first nine months of the year, reflecting a significant improvement from the $ 4.9 million net loss for the same period in 2002.
ARIG's total investment assets increased by $16.6 million to $886.1 million for the first nine months of this year compared to $869.5 million at year-end 2002. Investment income was higher by $7.8 million for the period, representing an annualized rate of return of six percent on average investments.
ARIG is one of the largest Arab-owned insurance and reinsurance companies in the Middle East. In addition to the core reinsurance operations undertaken from its headquarters in Bahrain and branch office in Tunisia, the group operates insurance subsidiaries in Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
