Sanlam Kenya bounced back to profit after announcing a Ksh550 million pretax profit for the full financial year 2019 against a Kah2.1 billion pretax loss recorded in a similar period in 2018.
Local non-bank services provider’s group executive officer Dr. Patrick Tumbo attributed the firm’s profitability on its execution of a corporate turnaround strategy which focused on improving the firm’s operating efficiencies while paying particular attention to client service.
“At Sanlam, we have been pursuing our earlier announced strategy that focused on cost containment and aggressively growing our revenue base, both in the short and long term,” said Dr Tumbo.
During the period under review, Sanlam Kenya’s gross revenues from gross written premium and investment income improved by 50 percent compared to the previous year, while total outflows from policyholder benefits and expenses increased by 4 percent.
Gross written premiums also improved by 10 percent as a result of 30 percent growth in the short-term insurance business.
Investment income performance made a complete turnaround and reported Kshs 2.7 billion in revenues compared to Ksh187 million which included the impact of impaired assets in the previous year.
Sanlam Group’s long-term insurance business reported a net profit of KSh 636 million compared to previous year’s net loss of KSh.627 million. The short- term insurance business delivered a 30 percent growth in gross written premiums. Total capital and reserves improved by 9 percent to KSh 1.74 billion.
The company maintains a positive outlook for 2020 and expects to ride on its improved insurance business and higher returns from a rapidly growing asset management portfolio.
Sanlam Kenya is part of the South African financial services group headquartered in Bellville, Western Cape.
The group operates in Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, India, Malaysia and the UK.
