Salama's 2020 net profit more than doubles to Dh136m

Islamic Arab Insurance Company (Salama) has announced its preliminary results for the 2020 fiscal year, with a significant growth in net proft for the year to Dh136.13 milliion, more than double last year.

At an operating level, during 2020, Salama has successfully focused on the local UAE market, where it sees the most growth potential. This is reflected in its gross written contributions which increased six per cent overall to Dh1.17 billion for the full year 2020 despite the challenges posed by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Excluding the one-off net profit of Dh67 million from the partial sale of Salama’s holding in Salama Cooperative Insurance Co, underlying net profit saw an increase of more than 15 per cent to Dh69 million compared with Dh59.8 million in 2019.

In addition, Salama has achieved a significant uplift in its net investment income, which grew from Dh22 million in 2019 to Dh45 million in 2020. The increase demonstrates the progress which the company has made in redeploying cash flows into quality assets as part of the prudent investment strategy adopted by the board last year. The company was also able to reduced its accumulated losses significantly to Dh314.78 million thanks to its strong profitability for the year.

During 2020, Salama was one of the first insurers in the UAE to launch its new suite of insurance products following the introduction of the new UAE regulation 49 (also known as BOD-49) in October 2020. The results show the early benefits of these new products and will support Salama’s continued growth in the coming year, in combination with the company’s ongoing implementation of technology-driven solutions and industry-leading business practices.

Jassim Alseddiqi, Salama’s chairman, said: “Salama made huge strides in 2020, even in the face of an unprecedented global pandemic. Crucially, we continued to serve our customers effectively and efficiently throughout this challenging year and the results are testament to this. As a board, we are also focused on Salama’s profitability and investment income and again, we have delivered on our strategy to enhance both. It’s particularly pleasing to see investment income has more than doubled this year.”

He added: “We entered 2021 in a strong position. Whether our industry-leading products, digital solutions or investment approach, we remain confident that Salama can create long-term sustainable value for its policyholders and shareholders alike.”

business@khaleejtimes.com