The shareholders of Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance Co (QGIRCO) yesterday gave their final nod to the company’s strategic growth plans, including development of new projects and optimization of its assets other resources within Qatar and abroad.
The Board of Directors has adopted a number of significant resolutions intended to achieve the envisaged and aspired growth and development of Group, which included development of its land plots to the substantial benefit of the Group, while considering priorities upon such development.
The QGIRCO’s Annual General Assembly (AGM) meeting, which was presided over by Sheikh Nasser bin Ali Al Thani, Chairman and Managing Director of the Group, also gave approval for other important agenda of the meeting, including the Company’s decision to close its operations in the UAE.
“In view of the current situation of the investment markets in the region and following a lengthy consideration of the situation with respect to the Company’s branch in Dubai (the UAE) the Board of Directors decided to close this branch, to the present and future best interest of the Company,” Sheikh Nasser told the shareholders of the Group in his address at the AGM.
He also informed about the official inauguration of the new factory ‘General Company For Water and Beverages’, one of the Group’s subsidiaries, for the production of pure drinking water with a brand name ‘Al-Rawda’.
Commenting on the Company’s performance, the Chairman of QGIRCO said: “I am proud to point out that QGIRCO, as one of the leading insurance companies in Qatar, was able to maintain and to reinforce its prominent and robust position in the Insurance market and industry, besides to extending a valuable contribution towards achieving the State’s quest in alignment with Qatar’s vision 2030.”
The QGIRCO succeeded through its strong capital base and diversified investments portfolio to support our Group in continuously meeting its strategy, thus delivering a good performance during the year. It reported a net profit of QR273.91m for the year ended 31st December 2018, up nearly five percent compared to QR260.91m reported for the same period previous year (2017).
The Group has achieved during the year a gross written premium of QR796.19m, including the Takaful business and the discontinued operations of Dubai Branch, (2017: QR796.02m), which is considered an acceptable achievement, given the severe impact of the competitive international prices on insurance premiums.
The Group has also achieved net investment results of QR257.13m for the year ended December 31, 2018 against QR250.96m in 2017. The Group’s total assets reached QR10.25bn and total equity of QR6.33bn as of December 31, 2018.
The AGM also gave approval to the Board’s proposal for distributing cash dividends to the shareholders at the rate of 10 percent of the nominal value per share, equivalent to QR1 per share.
Source from: The Peninsula