KUWAIT: Gulf Insurance Group (gig) announced a net profit of KD 6.6 million ($21.7 million), or 36.78fils per share, for the first half of 2018 compared with net profit of KD 5.4 million ($17.7 million) for the same period last year, an increase of KD 1.2 million ($4 million) or 22.7 percent. This increase is due to the improvement of group's underwriting results and increase of the share of results from its subsidiaries.
Shareholder equity reached KD 78.8 million ($260.3 million), as at June 30, 2018.
Book value per share reached fils440 as at June 30, 2018. Gross written premium reached KD 154.3 million ($509.7 million) without Takaful Operations Premiums and after incorporating the Takaful Operations, Gross written premium reached KD 168.1 million ($555.1 million), a growth of 7.6 percent compared with the same period last year of KD 156.3 million ($516.2 million). Net investment income and sundry income reached KD 6.8 million ($22.36 million) compared to KD 6.2 million ($20.6 million) for the same period last year with an increase of 8.6 percent.
Net technical reserves were raised from being KD 126.3 million ($417 million) on December 31, 2017, reaching KD 129.3 million ($427.15 million) as at June 30, 2018. This increase represents a growth of 2.4 percent, supports the company's technical operations and to protect the policyholders rights, thereby strengthening gig's ability to withstand emergencies and risks that may rise in the future.
Total assets reached KD 497.3 million ($1.64 billion) as at June 30, 2018, an increase of KD 4.2 million ($14 million) or 1 percent from Dec 31 2017.
Khaled Al-Hasan, gig's CEO, said, "Our results for the first half of 2018 reflect the growth we have achieved. This is also a strong indication of the Group's ability to protect its assets and shareholders' equity. It is also in line with our constant strive to provide the best insurance services to our clients across all markets we operate in, supported by our strategy for regional expansion and increasing our domestic and regional market share."
He added, "We thank our clients for these achievements, as well as the support of our shareholders, namely KIPCO - Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) - and Fairfax Middle East Ltd. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to our dedicated employees for their efforts."