February 10, 2014

Mr. Abdulla Buhindi - Chairman of Bahrain Kuwait Insurance Company (BKIC) announced that the Board of Directors in its meeting held on Sunday, 9th February 2014 has proposed a cash dividend of 30% (30 fils per share) to the shareholders subject to the approval at the Annual General Meeting. He also stated that BKIC has achieved a net profit of BD 3.7 million for the year ended 31^st December 2013 as compared to BD 4.2 million in 2012. He said that this decline resulted from increased losses due to the high rate of accidents in Motor class. Fire & General Accidents class also recorded few large losses. It should be noted that the net profit of the three months period ended 31 December 2013 amounted to BD 861 thousands as compared to BD 1.1 million for the same period in the previous year due to decreased gross earnings from BD 4.0 million to BD 3.5 million.

Mr. Buhindi also added that the total assets have recorded an increase from BD 87.4 million in 2012 to BD 97 million in 2013.  Shareholder's equity registered an increase of 7% from BD 31.1 million in 2012 to BD 33.3 million in 2013. The Company has achieved a return on shareholders' funds of 11.1% for the year 2013 as compared to 13.6% for the last year.  The earnings per share have decreased from 59 fils in 2012 to 52 fils in 2013. Book value per share has increased from 434 fils as on 31 December 2012 to 466 fils as on 31 December 2013. 

Mr. Ebrahim Al Rayes - The Chief Executive Officer of BKIC stated that despite the 9% increase in the Gross Premium Revenue from BD 35 million in 2012 to BD 38 million in 2013, there has been no significant change in the Gross Earnings due to underwriting a large project at the end of the year. On the other hand, the amount of net claims rose by 11%, which is a significant and unexpected increase, where Underwriting Profit declined by 16% from BD 3.96 million in 2012 to BD 3.32 million in 2013.

Mr. Al Rayes added that the year 2013 was a difficult year for the company, with increased rate of Motor and Fire accidents. The situation was further aggravated due to intense competition between companies to garner Motor and Health portfolios to compensate the shortfall in Contractors insurance and Marine insurance due to lack of Government projects and slow movement of the exports and imports.

Mr. Al Rayes concluded his speech, expecting 2014 to be a better year in terms of production and hopes that the contribution of the Government spending to provide greater opportunities for the insurance industry, also he hopes to improve rates of loss which will reflect in the final results of the company positively.