Qatar Insurance Company (QIC), the leading insurer in Qatar and the Middle East North African (MENA) region, has registered a robust net profit of QR230m for the first quarter of 2022. The company announced yesterday its financial results for the first quarter of 2022. Following a meeting of the board of Directors yesterday, which was presided over by Khalifa Abdulla Turki Al Subaey, Chairman & Managing Director of QIC Group, the Board approved the financial results.

The Group’s result was driven by the solid performance of its domestic and MENA operations, strong technical results across QIC’s franchise and the cost-leadership of its operations. Amid continued economical and political headwinds, the Group’s gross premium volume remained stable at QR3.2bn in the first quarter of 2022 on a like-for-like basis building on QIC’s strengths in personal lines and advanced online services. While the economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic was fading in Q1 (first quarter) 2022, global markets saw themselves confronted with rising interest rates as central banks sought to tame in an accelerating inflation. In addition, markets had to fight the impact from supply chain disruptions and, most importantly, had to digest the shock of the Russian-Ukraine war. Within this challenging environment, QIC Group further progressed on its path of cementing its leadership in its domestic markets in Qatar and the MENA region, while reducing its exposure to volatile severity risks.

Khalifa Abdulla Turki Al Subaey, Chairman & Managing Director of QIC Group stated “QIC Group continues to forge ahead, delivering solid and dependable results in an environment of unprecedented uncertainty. The performance of our Group fills us with pride as we see how well our strategic priorities pay off. This achievement is a testament to the strength of our brand. Based on our cutting-edge technological capability and our focus on lean and agil operations, QIC provides valued services and security to customers in the Middle East, Europe and across the international insurance markets.”

Salem Khalaf Al Mannai, Group Chief Executive Officer, said “In Q1 2022, QIC’s international operations – Qatar Re, Antares, QIC Europe Limited (QEL) and the Gibraltar based carriers – which account for approximately 73 percent of the Group’s total GWP, achieved a premium volume of QR2.3bn. The performance of the Group’s international operations profited from rate hardening and tighter conditions due to prior year loss experience, a rising interest rate environment and growing uncertainties amid accelerating inflation. However, reinsurance capacity remained sufficient although global retro and alternative capital markets hardened”.

He further added, “While we continue to focus on our set strategy of expanding the footprint in profitable direct-line insurance markets within GCC ,our domestic and MENA operations, which are dominated by our advanced personal lines business, turned in yet another increase in GWP to QR854m, up by 11 percent from QR772m in Q1 2021. As volume continued to expand, our operations in the Middle East continued to impress with strong underwriting profitability benefiting from our highly efficient and automated digital sales channels. QIC will have a renewed focus to further develop and grow the direct insurance vertical in the region by leveraging its position as a leader in digitalization of personal lines and other select line of business”.

QIC’s technical profit rose to QR171m for the first quarter of 2022, from QR157m for the prior year’s period. During this quarter QIC achieved a combined ratio of 98.7. The Group’s strengthened technical performance is a reflection of the successful execution of our strategy to focus our efforts on our highly attractive personal lines business while de-risking our more volatile international commercial lines business. Its performance has thus become more predictable despite continued uncertainties in the global insurance markets and the world’s economies. As part of its fast evolving digital strategy, QIC Group recently established -Digital Venture Partners (QIC DVP) – a business unit bound to become the ecosystem orchestrator for insurance and insurtech in the MENA region.

QIC DVP aims to reshape the digital insurance landscape by building new digital ventures, leveraging existing assets, partnering with Big Tech and corporates, and strategically investing in high potential early-stage startups.

In a challenging global market environment where the volatility on global markets increased substantially QIC’s investment team performed impeccably, cementing its recognition as the leading investment house in the region. The Group’s net investment result amounted to QR301m in Q1 2022, as compared to QR275m in Q1 2021.

QIC Group also continued its efforts to enhance process efficiencies through automation and digitization. In the first quarter of 2022 the Group further lowered its already healthy administrative expense ratio for its core operations to 6.9 percent, an improvement from the expense ratio of 7.5 percent in Q1 2021. Overall, the Group achieved a strong consolidated net profit of QR230m for Q1 2022, compared to QR205m in the previous year’s period.

As a token of our excellent performance, QIC has been crowned “Insurance Brand of The Year in The Middle East” at The Global Banking & Finance Review Awards 2021. The company was also awarded “Insurance Brand of The Year in Qatar”, “Best Insurance Company Digital Transformation in Qatar” and “Best Insurance Website in Qatar.”

Arabic