Amana Takaful Insurance tops Rs. 1 billion in GWP

Amana Takaful Insurance recorded its first year of premium income above Rs. 1 billion in 2008 together with a significant improvement to the bottom line, celebrating its 10th year of operations in Sri Lanka.

Despite many adversities, both local and global, we have recorded above industry average growth since our inception.

Topping the Rs.1 billion mark is our biggest achievement to date and we will continue to grow from strength to strength,” said Chairman, Amana Takaful Insurance Tyeab Akbarally.

Gross Written Premium (GWP) grew by 26.56 percent to record Rs 1,024 Mn, which is well above the industry average.

Life insurance showed major growth where GWP grew by 44 percent to reach Rs. 188 Mn. General Insurance recorded a growth of 23 percent to achieve a GWP of Rs. 835 Mn. Total assets grew by 14.87 percent to reach Rs.1,053 Mn in 2008 as against Rs. 917 Mn in 2007.

The company also achieved a significant improvement over 2007 in its bottom line to reduce its Operating Loss by 65.7 percent. Prudent underwriting and improved investment income contributed mainly to this, showing much promise for Amana Takaful Insurance.

“Though our investment income grew significantly, one of our main challenges remains to be the dearth of Islamic investment opportunities in the country.

“Whilst conventional insurance companies in Sri Lanka largely benefit from the high returns on investment, as a Takaful operator, our investment opportunities are limited. “Islamic investment opportunities are still in its infancy in Sri Lanka,” Akbarally said.

Director/Chief Executive Officer Ehsan Zaheed said, “We had improved on many areas last year, based on our learnings of 2007.

Our claims management and internal processes were revamped and we had healthy income from our investments as a result of several Islamic investment tie ups with banks. 2009 looks even more promising and we are very positive that we will do better this year, especially since its our 10th year of operations”.

Having spread the novel concept of insurance that is Takaful in the past years to all Sri Lankans, Amana Takaful Insurance in 2008, injected fresh thinking and investment into the areas of Life insurance and Medical insurance, which has materialized in the way of premiums that helped boost consolidated results.

Akbarally said, “We expect a significant growth in the Family Takaful business in 2009 and also from the Medical insurance business, which we see as a positive growth sector requiring good and proactive management. There is a lot of scope for medical insurance in Sri Lanka, given the high cost of quality residential medication.”