From left: Managing Director/CEO, Law Union & Rock Insurance, Jide Orimolade; Chairman, Remi Babalola and Company Secretary, Stanley Chikwendu at the event.
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Chuks Udo Okonta
Law Union and Rock Insurance Plc, posted a Gross Premium Income of N3.93 billion, in 2016, its Chairman, Remi Babalola, has said.
He disclosed this today at the 48th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the underwriting firm in Lagos, adding that in 2016 the company increased marginally in her top-line whilst it recorded a significant growth in the bottom-line.
According to him, the company ended the year with N3.935 billion Gross Premium Written compared to N3.858 billion recorded in 2015. Profit before Tax grew by over 100 per cent, from N0.328 billion in 2015 to N0.658 billion. Total assets grew by 3.72 per cent to N8.580 billion while shareholders’ funds grew by 13.03 per cent from N4.458 billion to N5.039 billion in 2016.
Babalola said, the Company’s mantra remains “unfailing and prompt settlement of all claims” with Claims Paying Ability (CPA) rating of A-, adding that the company paid out N1.454 billion in 2016.
In his report to the Shareholders, Babalola said by the approval of the shareholders of the Company to raise additional capital by way of private placement to the tune of 1,031,199,000 ordinary shares of N0.50 Kobo at N0.70 Kobo per share, requisite regulatory approvals were obtained for the placement issue.
According to him, consequent upon a conditional approval issued by the National Insurance Commission, that the investor’s post-placement position should not exceed 20 per cent ofthe Company’s equity, the placement was 83.3 per cent subscribed, thus bringing the total shares subscribed to 859,000,000 ordinary shares. The additional capital raised is expected to significantly enhance the Company’s operations and boost its capacity to play in the oil & gas and engineering subsector of the insurance space.
The Chairman also eulogised the immediate past Chairperson of the company, Princess Adenike Adeniran who retired last year from the Board for her astutenessand leadership openness and accountability while heading the Board.
The Managing Director, Jide Orimolade, said the profitability of the company has constantly been increased since 2014. He also confirmed that the repositioning has begun to yield result as the company was able to regain her dominance in the Engineering market.
He attributed the company’s great feat to the various strategic initiatives which were driven by state of art technology which gave the company competitive advantage ahead of our competitors and enable her to navigate through the turbulent economy in 2016 with a good profitability.
The Managing Director, said careful attention to service delivery to customer satisfaction has further given the company respect and recognition in the industry.
“Our attention would be given to distribution of our products to the burgeoning middle class which has the highest volume. We expect to reap huge premium through retail products as well as launch more new retail product. We shall continue to upgrade our technology in order to provide excellent and cutting edge service delivery. Huge value will be placed on our customers to secure their loyalty and thereby record high customer retention,” he said.
Sir Nwosu, left and a shareholder
A shareholder, Oderinde Taiwo, urged the company to leverage online channels to grow its business.
Augustine Anono, urged the firm to re-strategies its marketing and engage in onshore business.
Sir Sunny Nwosu, encouraged the firm to enhance its operations to enable shareholders have good dividends in the future.
He expressed worry over under-cutting of rates, stressing that if under cutting continues only few insurance companies will remain in business.
