Sovereign Trust Insurance gets shareholders approval to raise fresh funds

Underwriting firm, Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc has secured the approval of its shareholders to raise fresh capital in line with the company’s recapitalization plan as to enable it to play big in the nation’s insurance industry.

The shareholders, who gave the approval at the 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company in Lagos, applauded the management of the firm for a steering the company to positive performance in the 2017 financial year despite challenges in the economic environment.

Speaking during the meeting Williams Adebayo, president of Greenish Shareholders’ Association, commended the company for improving its performance in the year under review compared to that of 2016.

He said that shareholders will support the company in the quest to raise fresh fund to enable it to compete favourably and becomes one of the top players in the insurance industry.

While calling on the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) for extension of Tier-Based recapitalization model, he stressed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had warned about a possible relapse into recession of the economy based on fundamentals and analysts predictions.

Earlier, the chairman of the company, Oluseun Ajayi said the insurer recorded Gross Premium Written (GPW) of N8.5 billion in 2017, a 33 per cent increase over the N6.3 billion recorded in 2016.

He noted that the company’s net claims expenses for 2017 was N1.3 billion, which was a 9.5 per cent improvement over the N1.44 billion recorded in 2016.

According to him, the firm also recorded a Profit Before Tax (PBT) of N202 million as against N44 million recorded in 2016, representing over 351 increase. Profit After Tax (PAT), he said stood at N157 million, a 569 per cent increase as against N23 million recorded in 2016.

He noted that Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) recorded a positive performance of 1.87 per cent as against 0.47 per cent in the previous year and Investment income increased by 41.6 per cent from N286 million in 2016 to N406 million in 2017.

Ajayi pointed out that the firm’s total assets rose from N9.5 billion to N10 billion representing 13.7 per cent increase.