Africa Reinsurance Corporation has announced a net profit of $44.30million against $20.41 million posted in the year before. Underwriting profit of the corporation increase to $15.7million from $1.67 posted in 2008 thus demonstrating the reinsurer’s prudent management and its sound financial fundamentals.

Gross written premium for the year grew by 33.7% to US$536.38million (Approx N82.66 billion) compared to $401.04million in 2008. Africa Re declared these results at the 32nd Annual Ordinary Meeting of its General Assembly in Algiers , Algeria .

Mr. M. AL Naas, Chairman of the Board of Directors and the General Assembly of Africa Re expressed satisfaction with the positive results of the Corporation in 2009. In spite of the heat of the global financial crisis which was still prevalent in the year under review, Naas recalled that the corporation was rated A- by Standard & Poor’s to A-.

He added that Africa Re also embarked on some projects in the last few years which were concluded in 2009 as well such as extending its marketing network and producing great results in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), participation in the setting up of Ango Re (Angola) and the establishment of a Reinsurance Subsidiary (Africa Retakaful) in Cairo Egypt.

The Africa Re chairman commended the efforts made by Algeria to reinforce inter-African trade intended to strengthen the economic development of the continent. He applauded Africa Re for its volume of activities that are growing strongly and constantly for close to a decade including the reinsurer’s excellent results and the financial strength reflected by the rating upgrade by Standard & Poor’s.

The General Assembly took note of the decision of the Board to call the first portion of the authorized capital (US$500 million) in accordance with the resolution taken in Kigali in June 2007 to increase the paid up capital from US$100 million to US$300 million through the distribution of bonus shares (US$100 million) to shareholders, to be subscribed and paid before 31 May 2011. After this date, shares that are not subscribed shall be offered to other and/ or new shareholders to be paid before 31 December, 2011.

Another area of growth by Africa Re, was income from investment and other sources, including interest in reinsurance.

This amounted to $31.29million, compared to $17.65million reported in the previous period. The encouraging signs of recovery in the global economy and the spectacular rally in equity and credit markets, led to the improvement in the performance of the corporation’s investment portfolios.

The chairman attributed the exceptional performance of the Corporation, to ‘discipline and professionalism’. The other key elements of this success included diversified productivity, good performance of its traditional portfolio, especially the domestic market, better acceptability and visibility of its cedants including those outside its original territory. The future outlook remains optimistic.