• Results were attributed the growth to an improved investment performance and the positive impact of a revision in the statutory interest rate risk margin.
Financial services firm Sanlam Kenya, has bounced back to profitability.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) listed firm posted Sh639.7 million after-tax profit for the six-month period ending June 2019, a complete turnaround from last year’s Sh1.5 billion after-tax loss.
Sanlam Kenya chief executive officer Patrick Tumbo said efforts to re-orient the growth strategy were pay off.
He said the firm has focused on the growth of its core insurance business through strategic partnerships, human capital investment, revamped distribution strategy and other sales and marketing initiatives.
He said this has seen growth in core insurance revenues by 17 per cent to Sh3.65 billion up from Sh3.11 billion reported over the same period last year, despite an increasingly competitive market environment.
He also was attributed the growth to an improved investment performance and the positive impact of a revision in the statutory interest rate risk margin.
The firm’s total income derived from net earned premiums, investment and miscellaneous income improved by a whooping 84 per cent to Sh4.6 billion from Sh2.5 billion last year.
Investments on the other hand reported impressive market value gains on Sanlam’s equity and treasury bond portfolios raising the non-insurance incomes to Sh1.9 billion compared to Sh41 million over the same period last year.
Tumbo said that efforts to recover the Group’s impaired assets amounting to more than Sh 2.2 billion from institutions under financial distress, are still ongoing and remain a top priority for the business this year.