CIC Insurance Group #ticker:CIC posted a Sh259.5 million net profit in the half year ended June, reversing a net loss of Sh335.5 million the year before.
The return to profitability was helped by improved performance in the underwriting business and higher investment income.
Investment and other income, including positive currency movements at its South Sudan subsidiary, more than doubled to Sh2.6 billion from Sh1.2 billion.
Rising prices of listed equities on the Nairobi Securities Exchange contributed to the gains.
The bourse is recovering from a major selloff last year that was inspired by the panic in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
CIC also gained from higher fees in its asset management business which has grown to oversee more than Sh45 billion pooled from a diverse group of investors.
Gross premiums rose to Sh10.7 billion from Sh9.2 billion, with the Kenyan general insurance business posting a 75 percent increase in underwriting profit to Sh447 million.
Chief executive Patrick Nyaga said the company is implementing its new strategy of cutting costs, enhancing efficiencies and lifting margins across the region and in the various insurance operations.
CIC is close to disposing a large part of its land holdings, with the proceeds earmarked for paying down debt and reinvesting the balance in cash-generating assets.
Kenya’s imports from Tanzania have exceeded its exports to the East African Community(EAC) partner state for the first time in decades, signalling improved trade flows under President Samia Suluhu’s administration.
Fresh data by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that Kenya’s imports from Tanzania grew nearly three-quarters in the six months to June 2021 compared with a year earlier—coinciding with the thawing of trade ties between the two nations.
The value of goods ordered from Tanzania — including cereals, wood, and edible vegetables — hit a high of Sh18.29 billion in the review period, according to data from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) published by the CBK.The 70.06 percent surge in goods bought from Tanzania outpaced that of exports, which grew at a five-year high, resulting in a rare trade deficit of Sh1.02 billion.The CBK data shows exports to Tanzania — including pharmaceutical products, plastics, iron, and steel — bumped 21.39 percent to Sh17.27 billion, the highest since the first half of 2016.President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Tanzanian counterpart, Ms Suluhu, early May pledged to end persistent strained trade relations between the two largest economies in the six-nation EAC bloc which have, for years, hindered the […]