LONDON (Alliance News) - Insurance firm GBGI Ltd said Monday its 2017 profit dipped after an impairment on its Angola business and rising claims payments, despite both revenue and gross written premiums growing.
Shares in GBGI were 19% lower at 90.00 pence on Monday.
In 2017, pretax profit narrowed to USD3.6 million from USD11.2 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising to USD155.9 million from USD119.4 million the year before.
Profit performance was hurt by a rise in net claims paid and a rise in administrative expenses.
Net claims paid grew to USD62.5 million from USD37.4 million the year before while administrative expenses rose to USD53.9 million from USD35.9 million the year before. This was primarily due to a USD12.3 million impairments associated with its Angola operations.
Gross written premium grew 18% to USD193.9 million from USD165.0 million the year prior. Net written premiums were up 15% to USD104.5 million from USD90.6 million the year before.
"2017 marked another year of growth for GBGI as we made our successful transition to a quoted company in the first quarter," GBGI Chief Executive Officer Bob Dubrish said. "We continued to make significant progress driven by our global, well-diversified approach."
"The decisions taken in Angola followed our standard risk assessment procedures," Dubrish added. "Although the outcome of the restructuring of our operations in the country is disappointing, we firmly believe we took the right course of action. Looking across the breadth of our portfolio, I am confident this is a non-recurring event."
"The strength of our offering rests on our proven ability to write risks in an agile, flexible manner whilst maintaining our focus on delivering underwriting profit," Dubrish continued. "We have a strong market position and continue to be one of the leading providers of international benefits insurance given our presence in 120 jurisdictions."
"We continue to focus on profitable growth and looking forward, we continue to see opportunities to develop the business across our diversified portfolio", Dubrish said.
