WAICA Re concludes first tranche of capitalization plan with 90% subscription success
Africa’s top reinsurer, WAICA Reinsurance Corporation Plc (WAICA Re) has concluded the first tranche of its three phase capitalization project with a subscription success level of 90 percent.
The capitalisation process started in 2016 through a Rights Issue which involved the issue of 14,472,816 ordinary shares at $1.52 per share at a ratio of 0.5669 new share for every one (1) existing share held. This offer was to raise additional share capital of $21,998,680 to support the Corporation’s strategic drive and business expansion.
At the end of the offer, 13,031,190 shares were subscribed valued at $19,807,408.80, representing a success rate of 90 percent, Kofi Duffor, chairman of the Company said at its Annual General Meting held in Accra, Ghana.
Established by the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA), the company commenced operations with modest capital pooled from member companies and the public in July 2011. Its capital base was later raised to $25 million in December 2013.
Duffor said despite the exchange rate volatility which affected the USD translated figures of premiums generated, we recorded a 47 percent growth in gross premium income from $33.5 million in 2015 to $49.2 million in 2016.
“ In the WAICA Re member countries, Sierra Leone recorded the highest level of growth of 153 percent, followed by Liberia 60 percent, then Gambia 26 percent, Ghana 23 percent and Nigeria 8 percent. This is reflective of our continuous effort to grow the business in our home markets.
He said the 8 percent moderate growth from Nigeria was as a result of the significant naira depreciation during the period under review. Despite the difficult economic conditions in Nigeria, our team there is doing an excellent job in mitigating the impact and we see good growth opportunities in 2017,
“In line with our strategic objectives of growing the business beyond the Anglophone West Africa region, we attained a notable growth level in the Francophone Africa region in 2016. The French region grew by an impressive 205 percent while earnings from other overseas countries also grew by 80 percent.”
According to him, while Nigeria and Ghana continued to be its major markets, collectively contributing 48 percent of the 2016 premium income, the Francophone and the Diaspora regions (comprising of other African countries as well as some stable/selected countries in the Middle East and Asia) are now very significant premium income contributors, bringing in 11 percent and 37 percent respectively to the gross premium income.
He further stated that the Corporation’s focus on strategic marketing remained unswerving in our quest to grow the company and provide appreciable returns on investment to our Shareholders. A lot of marketing activities were carried out during the year 2016 and there is no gain in saying it cannot be gainsaid that the fruits were conspicuous. In all these cases, quality bilateral discussions were held which contributed to our growth, Dufor stated.
Modestus Anaesoronye